Little White Lies

Chapter 28

By the time we head to school I'm beyond grumpy. It's raining, again, the twins were late and bickering, I hadn't received a single text or phone call since last night, and my own family had even ignored me. I let out a loud sigh as I drive towards school, but neither of the twins is paying any attention to me. Grant is staring out of the window in complete silence as usual while Jacey is merrily texting away from the back seat. What did I expect, a big fuss?

I drop the twins off at the middle school and head over to the high school parking lot. Where is everyone? I see Autumn and Andy's vehicles in the parking lot but neither of them are anywhere to be seen. Nothing special is one thing but ignored?!

You have to be kidding, I think as I head to my locker. I turn the corner and BAM, there they are.

All at once they yell, "Happy Birthday Sawyer!"

I'm overwhelmed. Autumn has decorated my locker with pink streamers and balloons, there's even a pink rose through the lock. Andy, Oliver, Autumn, and even Grant and Jacey (who must have flat out sprinted here) are grinning back at me. Andy hugs me tight, "Are you surprised?" he asks.

"I think that may be the understatement of the decade," I laugh, still in shock.

"You have no idea how hard it was to convince people not to text you until now. I've been texting people for days," Jacey says.

"We wanted to be the very first to wish you a happy birthday," Autumn grins.

"I was so frustrated! I couldn't believe you guys had forgotten! It was so unlike you," I look up over my shoulder to where Andy stands behind me, arms wrapped around my waist.

"March 11th, forever burned into my brain," Andy says with a swift, light, kiss.

"No way would I ever forget, in fact," Autumn pauses looking around, "where is your phone?"

"In my bag, why?" I ask.

"Check it," Autumn grins. I dig around in the front pocket of my backpack until I find my phone, I look and see I have a new voice message, from Autumn, weird. "Listen to it!" she insists.

I listen to the short message and start laughing. It's Oliver and Autumn singing me happy birthday. "You guys are the cutest," I laugh. "I love it."

"Well, we all love you," Autumn smiles as the first bell rings.

"School," I say pointing at Jacey and Grant. "If you don't leave now you'll be late."

"Yes Mom," Grant says with a roll of his eyes. Jacey pulls me away from Andy and into a big hug, "Happy birthday!" she says before whispering in my ear, "You're my hero, did you know that?" Tears spring to my eyes as I hug her tighter. "Bye!" they both say as I finally let Jacey go.

"Presents at lunch," Autumn says as she turns and walks off to her A.P. English class.

"Can I walk you to Stats?" Andy asks, reaching for my hand.

"Won't you be late?" I ask as he pulls me in the direction of my first class.

"Not if we walk quickly," he grins.

"Did she just say 'at lunch'?" I ask.

"Yeah, she's jumped through some pretty major hoops to get permission to come to our lunch today," Andy says with a shake of his head. "Which is a little ridiculous since she's just in study hall. But she had to go to the Vice Principal because Mrs. Wells was being insane about letting her leave the library."

"Are you kidding? All of that for presents at lunch? Too much," I laugh as we stop outside my classroom.

"Never too much," Andy grins, tugging my hand to pull me back around the lockers where Ms. Squires couldn't see us. He leans down and gives me a sweet kiss then looks down at me, "Happy birthday sweets," he says with a squeeze of my hand. "I gotta go," he says as he turns and sprints down the hall towards A.P. English.