Triple Trouble

Chapter 5: Birthday!

Rodrigo placed the garden figurine inside a box. The box was red with a yellow lace on top, kinda hard to miss. "As y'all can see, the figurine is inside this box." he said, trying really hard not to laugh just looking at that ugly frog he got at the store.

The triplets had invited all their friends and cousins to their birthday and they were gathered in the living room. Rodrigo closed the box and left it on top of a table. Then, Jeff explained what The Heist was about.

"Lena, Gary and I will compete to see who can steal the figurine before dad comes back with our cake. Whoever wins will be granted eternal glory... and a plaque that says 'I'm the Big Brother'

"Which is kind of disrespectful to me, but okay." Lena complained. She wanted the 'I'm the boss' sign.

"The rules are simple: dont die."

Gary gulped.

After Rodrigo blew his whistle, the clock began running, and things were as messy as one can imagine with a bunch of teenagers. Chaos ensured. Each of them were thinking of a plan to steal the figurine and each of them had their allies.

Suddenly, the lights were off.

"Ouch, that's my feet!"

"Stop hitting me!"

"This is as dark as my soul."

When the lights came back, the box was one but the triplets were still in their places.

"Who took the box?!"

"Your house is haunted and we're all gonna die!"

"I told you we shouldn't have invited cousin Jim." Lena sighed, looking at Jeff.

An alarm went off. Never gonna give you up by Rick Astley was playing loudly. When Lena came back to the living room, she gasped loudly. "Where's Gary?"

He was mysteriously gone. And he never wasted the opportunity to dance to that song. Something was fishy to say the least.

Gary's signal was the alarm. He ran to the garden and his best friend was there with a red box. "Good job! And thanks for helping me."

"No problem, I'm glad you got over your fear of the dark."

"Actually I'm not. That was very scary and uncomfortable and I never wanna do that again."

However, Jeff had discovered Gary's plan a couple of days before and asked Rodrigo to intercept Gary's best friend before he could give him the red box. The one Gary had was fake, so when the lights came off he knew he had to change the boxes.

The time was running and Jeff and Gary seemed to be really sure they would win, but just as they both revealed their red boxes, Lena laughed like villain in a movie.

"You fools! You buffoons! You've been bamboozled!"

And then, she revealed a box. The real box.

Her best friend Clara had helped. When the lights came off, she stole the real box from Rodrigo... by kicking him "accidentally". That was enough distraction for him. And she ran to the bathroom to hide the box, scaring Gary in the process. Lena held the ugly frog in front of everyone and got her brothers to say out loud she was the best of the best of the best.

They enjoyed their time before dad came home, laughing and listening to music. When dad arrived, they ate cake until they couldn't anymore.

"Happy 15th birthday, nerds." said Lena happily, hugging her brothers and kissing each on the cheek. They laughed.

"Happy birthday. I'm glad we're siblings." said Gary.

"Happy birthday."