Adopted By 5quad

Chapter 5

-2 weeks later-
• Zach's POV •
Today is Ashlynn's birthday. We aren't quite sure if she even knows it or not, since the adoption center never really talked about whether or not they celebrated everyone child's birthday.

Assuming that Ashlynn doesn't know, we want to make this birthday very special for her. It's going to be her first, or, first big birthday for her (depending if the adoption center celebrated before). We all went shopping for gifts and decorations a few days ago, and had my mom babysit Ashlynn while we went out. We convinced her that it was a "girls night in" and my mom did makeovers and nails and such.

Currently, it is 11:57 at night, so technically not Ashlynn's birthday for another 3 minutes. While she is asleep, we are setting up a special surprise and decorations for her when she wakes up.

First, we are setting up a scavenger hunt that leads to a surprise where we will all be hiding in the morning. Then, after we finish setting that up, we will decorate the room where the last stop is with tons of decorations. Hopefully Ashlynn likes what we have planned during the day, too.

The girls, who are clearly better cooks than the majority of us, plan to cook Ashlynn a nice birthday breakfast in the morning after the surprise. Later we will take her to some places she hasn't been before, like the beach and Santa Monica Pier. Finally, we will take her out to birthday dinner then open presents at home and have a dance party.

(a/n: please note that I know that Zach's Mom and Zach of course don't live in LA, so how would she babysit? well in this book all of the boys live in a house in LA and Zach's Mom lives in Anaheim so go with it😂 and also, I don't know any specific names of rides or anything on Santa Monica pier so please don't get mad if I make up random names of rides😂)

Okay, the girls have made some cute handwritten clue cards that we now have to place everywhere. The first one will be taped on the inside of Ashlynn's door so she will see it when she wakes up. It reads,

"Good morning Ashlynn! Today we decided that we will send you on a fun scavenger hunt with a prize at the end! Go with Aunt Kylee, who is reading this to you, to the next stop! Your clue is: this is the place where there's lots of foods to pick from, and usually smells good from cooking!"

Yes, the next stop is the kitchen. But we have to remember that Ashlynn is still very little and wouldn't be able to go along with something too challenging. Ashlynn will have to guess where the next stop is, and Kylee will help her out a bit. We can't just let her do this on her own because one, she can't read, and two, she would probably just look for us instead.

After her and Kylee reach the kitchen, Kylee will read her the next clue:

"Aha! So you seemed to have found the next clue, well here it is! This is the place where it's sunny and bright, and at night you can see the stars!"

Obviously, the next stop is the backyard. Again, Kylee and Ashlynn will make their way outside to find the next clue, which is:

"Wow, you're very good at this! You're halfway to the end! Your next clue is: this is the place where we watch your favorite shows and throw popcorn at each other for fun!"

The next stop, if you couldn't tell, is the family room. Finally, there will be one last clue which will lead her to the surprise. The final clue reads:

"Ahh! You're very close to finding us! Your final clue is: this is the place for lots of fun and jumping around! We do challenges and go on the computer here!"

The final stop is indeed in the broadcasting room! Kylee and Ashlynn will make their way there where it will be very decorated, but the lights will be turned off so she can't see until we yell surprise and Kylee turns them on.

Now that we have hung up the clues everywhere, it's time to decorate and wrap gifts!

The girls are probably going to do most of it because they seem to be better at neatly doing these things than we do. They first wrap Kylee's gift, the Polaroid and film, which she bought at the mall a few weeks ago when the girls took Ashlynn shopping. They wrapped the Polaroid itself and the film boxes in two separate pieces of paper. They take a thin silver ribbon, place the wrapped film on top of the wrapped Polaroid in its packaging, and tie them together with a cute bow on top.

Next, they are wrapping Timmy and Kenzie's gift. Yes, in the past two weeks, Timmy met a girl named Makenzie and they're currently close friends. They'd be cute together, but they still bought a gift together for Ashlynn. They decided on a few different colored skater skirts that were very nice quality. They got her maroon, lilac, black, and light blue. The girls fold each one, then stack them on top of each other and wrap them up.

Next is Rudan and Maddie's gift. (a/n: yes I know that Rudan and Maddie aren't dating anymore, but in this book they still are) They bought Ashlynn some flower crowns, courtesy of Rudan, then some very comfy looking sweaters. The sweaters are light grey, lilac, dark grey, and army green. Just like the last gift, the girls fold everything and put the flower crowns on top, then wrap it all up.

After that is Edwin's gift. Kylee already bought the Polaroid and film, and Edwin didn't want to effortlessly just put his name on something he didn't pick out. He decided on a black pair of sweatpants, classic black and white Adidas sneakers, and a custom red shirt that says, "Little Yung Savage" on it in cool yellow comic book looking letters. Just like the other gifts, the girls fold the sweatpants and shirt then wrap them. They then wrap the box with the Adidas and tie the wrapped up clothing on top of the Adidas box using a magenta ribbon.

Next is my gift. Ashlynn is one of the best things, or I should say people, to come into my life. I couldn't be thankful enough that we all took her in. I want to make sure that I'm contributing to this big birthday, so I got Ashlynn a big present. I decided on a puppy. I know what you're thinking, "Nick is her parent, how do you know him and the other guys will be okay with this?" Well, I talked it over with them and they liked the idea. Instead of picking a dog for her, we are going to take her to the dog adoption center and let her pick one. I made a nice card with a voucher inside that says, "This may be redeemed for any puppy of your choice! Love, Uncle Zach❤️". I also ordered another one of my blue bucket hat that has pink donuts on it for Ashlynn. The girls just put the voucher inside the card, which they then put in a pink envelope. As for the bucket hat, they wrapped it then taped the envelope on top of it.

Last is Nick and Madeline's present. Of course, his is the most expensive or biggest gift of all of ours because he is her Dad. And even though Madeline isn't married to Nick or anything, she is most likely to be Ashlynn's future mother. (a/n: I know Madeline isn't dating Nick, but in the book she is lol) They decided on one of those huge soft stuffed bears that are bigger than most people, an iPad mini, and 3 Tiffany Necklaces. One of them is the classic blue heart, another is the same but baby pink, and the last one is the same heart but lilac, and on the back is engraved and says, "Happy 4th Birthday, Ash. We love you- Dad and Madeline." They agreed that they didn't want to put Mom and Dad because they didn't want Ashlynn to think that Madeline is her legal mother yet. Technically, she is the closest thing to a mother that she has, but isn't actually there yet.

After everything has been wrapped and has tags as to who the gift is from, we neatly place them on the counter in the challenges area. We then take purple, pink, and blue streamers and hang them in the doorway so that you can walk through them and drape them from corner to corner. We then take the party hats and party horns and left them by the gifts so that in the morning we can use them when we hide. Last, we take some red and yellow balloons and blow them up, and let them touch the floor.

It looks like this is going to be a great birthday for Ashlynn.

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AHHH long chapter!
Hope y'all liked this one!❤️
Suggestions for the next chapter, should everything go well and as planned or should something go a little wrong? You tell me!
- xoxo💓