Story of Ann

s e v e n t e e n

April 25, 2018

It's my birthday today! So many people came up to me and told me. Half of them I didn't even know. Today was fun. We met with Kendall that morning. 

We walked by her and Elissa tapped me on the shoulder. 

"We should scared Kendall," she signed. We saw Kendall heading towards the stairs. We looked at each other then started heading towards her. 

We didn't see her. She was probably around the corner at her locker. 

We got to the top of the stairs. Elissa smiled at me. It was a weird smile. I felt someone tap me on the shoulder and I jumped and let out a hopefully quiet scream.

"I'm so sorry," Kendall signed when I turned around. Elissa started laughing. 

"That was awesome," Elissa signed still laughing. 

"I didn't mean to scare you," Kendall said worried.

I tried to keep a straight face, but couldn't do it. I laughed along with Elissa and Kendall joined. 

***

Since it was Shayla's birthday too, we went to go surprise her. 

Kendall met with Shayla around her homeroom class. We stood behind Kendall and watched them as they were talking. Kendall not mentioning us at all to see if she noticed. 

They walked into her class. Kendall talked to the teacher, and then was talking to Shayla as she walked out. 

They walked me to the seventh grade hallway and dropped me off. Then they headed up the stairs to their own homerooms just as the warning bell rang. 

***

The rest of my day was just full of people saying happy birthday to me. 

***

April 26th was Levi's birthday. He was still in the hospital, bored and tired. The doctors said he didn't want to get out of bed the whole day. 

We knocked on the door and opened it to see Levi sitting on his bed. He turned to look at us.

He looked at everyone then he got to Elissa and me. We saw a smile form on his face.

"Lisa, Jessica Ann, come here," he motioned us to follow him. He went into his closet and brought out a stuffed animal turtle. Turtles were his favorite. 

He grabbed it out and put in on his bed. He patted the bed to tell us to sit down. We sat on the edge and he gave Elissa the stuffed Nemo fish and I got Livi, which is his duck. Levi sure did love animals.

"Did you know, when I grow up I'm going to save all types of animals from Aardvarks to Zebras," he said. He made his turtle fly in the air. 

"Turtle is sleepy," he said and laid the turtle under the covers. 

***

Our mom came in not to long after Levi's turtle went to sleep. She had a birthday cake in her hands. 

Levi screamed and ran up to her. 

"Mom! Look!" he said.

"What Levi? What is it?" mom asked.

"Stay cool Turtle, you'll get some too," he said as he pointed over towards the bed were Turtle was sleeping. We all laughed together. Mom handed out cake for everyone. 

Levi showed Mom his turtle as he fed it some cake. 

"Look Mom, Turtle is happy." my mom smiled at him.

"Mom?" 

"Yes Levi?"

"When do I get to go home?" he asked still playing and making Turtle fly. My mom couldn't answer. She looked down. 

"Soon buddy, soon," she gave him a hug. We all joined in.

"Can I have more cake?" Levi asked. We could always count on Levi to make us smile. 

***

The doctor came in at the end of the day. 

"Time for bed Levi," she said. 

"Okay!" Levi said getting exited, "Turtle don't be afraid, I checked for monsters already," My mom smiled at him. 

"We'll see you tomorrow Levi, okay?" Mom said.

"Otay," he replied, "Lisa guess who taught me that!" 

"Who?"

"Kendy," he said. "Can you tell her I say hi?" 

"I will," 

"Thanks Lisa," 

"Good night Levi, Happy Birthday!" we all said as we shut the door so he could get ready for bed. 

***

That night we headed home. I walked up to my room with Elissa. We stopped by Levi's bedroom door. We looked inside to find Lego towers after Lego towers. He was always so good at building. The Lego version of the Effil Tower and the Pyramids of Egypt were his favorite.

We saw his favorite stuffed bear was sitting on his space bedspread. He had every character of Toy Story lined up on his book shelf. There were stick on stars and planted covering the area of the ceiling. 

I grabbed the bear sitting on his bed and Elissa and I headed to our rooms for the night.