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November 24, 2013

"Happy birthday," Olivia screamed as I rolled over on the bottom bunk.

"Let me sleep!"

"I did! It's already 12 o'clock," she laughed.

"In the morning," I asked.

"No, in the afternoon, silly! Now come on, we all made lunch for you," she said then started to drag me out of bed with her.

"Happy birthday," her whole family screamed as I walked into the dining room.

"Thanks, guys," I laughed.

"Awh. Why's our favorite birthday girl in a sour mood," Brayden, Olivia's older brother, asked.

"I wasn't done sleeping! But, it does kind of smell good out here. What's for lunch?"

"Mac and cheese and grilled cheese," Eve said.

"We know they're your favorites," Jadynn, Olivia's older sister, said.

"Heck yeah!"

"But before we do that, we have something that we want to give you as a family," Jack, Olivia's dad said before handing me a piece of paper.

"If it's okay with you, we'd love for you to be officially a part of our family," Eve said.

I started to tear up. "You... you want me? Why?"

"Well for starters you make things more interesting around here," Brayden said.

"And you're my best friend! Why wouldn't I want you to be my sister," Olivia asked.

"I can't believe this is really happening! How long will it take until I'm officially adopted," I asked.

"You just have to sign those papers. We've been working on getting this taken care of since the moment you moved in," Eve said.

"Well can someone give me a pen? I'm ready," I said. This birthday was definitely going to be the best birthday I'll ever have and the best part is that I get to spend it with my new family.

After finishing lunch I went back into mine and Olivia's room and I got a call from Caleb.

"Happy birthday, gorgeous," he yelled as soon as I answered.

I laughed, "Well, hello to you too."

"You'll never believe what I have in store for you today."

"Oh really," I asked. "How crazy is it this time?"

"Just make sure you wear something cute and are ready to go in 10 minutes," he said then hung out the phone without allowing me to object. I went over to the closet and got out my white and gray shirt that said 14 on it and dark blue jeans. Then I straightened my hair and by the time I was finished I heard the doorbell ring.

"Maddie, it's for you," Olivia yelled as she came running into our room.

"Do I look okay? He wouldn't tell me where he's taking me."

"Girl, you look hot," she said as she snapped her fingers dramatically. I laughed and made my way over to the front door.

"Damn look at you! Happy birthday, Princess," Caleb said. He was wearing his long sleeve football shirt and had a shoebox in his hands.

I blushed, "What's in the box?"

"Present number one of many. Here open it," he said while handing me the box. I opened it up to find a new pair of gray and pink vans that I had been wanting for the past couple of weeks.

"Caleb! You shouldn't have! I freaking love these," I said as I got them out of the box and put them on. It was a perfect fit. "How did you know my size?"

"Olivia helped."

"Olivia! So that's why she needed to borrow my shoes the other day. Hm, I thought that was weird especially since she's a size smaller."

"I had a feeling you wouldn't be on to me if Olivia found out instead of me asking," he chuckled.

"You're right, anyways, where are we going," I asked as we started walking to his car.

"Texas Roadhouse!"

"Oh my gosh, yes! I'm so excited," I happily squealed as we got to the car.

"I've got a million surprises for you, Princess," he smiled. "Speaking of, take a look in the console."

I opened it and found Selena Gomez's latest Album. "Yes! This is what I wanted! Can we listen to it now?"

"Of course," he laughed then I open the CD to find 2 concert tickets to one of her shows for her current tour.

"YOU GOT ME CONCERT TICKETS," I screamed. I had been wanting to go to a concert of hers since I discovered her existence.

"Oh no. You weren't supposed to see those until we were on the ride home."

"Then that's an odd place to hide them, mister," I laughed.

"Thanks, Captain Obvious," he said. We spent the rest of the ride to Texas Roadhouse talking about the concert and listening to my new CD.

After arriving at Texas Roadhouse, we sat down at a both and ordered and ate our dinner while just spent the evening talking about our lives and families.

"They adopted you! Princess that's so exciting," he said.

"Well, apparently they've been working on the process ever since I moved in but didn't want to tell me just Incase things took longer or didn't go well. They said the judge was fine with that and that they had enough evidence that it would be in my best interest to be adopted by them. All we have to do now is turn in the papers," I said smiling. I was so happy that I finally got to live with a loving family and got to spend time with my boyfriend.

"I'm so happy your day is going well. But, we do need to talk about something."

"What's wrong," I asked and reached across the table to hold his hand.

"There's some talk going around that I'll have to go up to North Dakota soon. I don't know when though but I do know if it happens I won't be able to say bye and that I'll have to leave my phone behind and hop on a train that minute. I just thought I would tell you now so that if I fall off the face of the planet you're not worried."

"How will I talk to you while you're gone?"

He looked down. "Princess, there's not a way. Like sure, they'll let me have a phone but talking to you, especially in the beginning, won't be a very good idea since Josh wants to send me up there because I'm so focused on you. Whenever it happens, we should just be on a break so that you can be with someone else if you want to."

"We don't need to be on a break, Caleb. I don't want anyone except you."

"But what if it takes a year or longer before they let me leave or even talk to you? I can't put you through that. You will always be in my heart and I will always love you but if you don't hear from me and the family tells you I left then we're on a break until I come home so you can continue to live your life." He looked a little angry but happy. He was probably just angry that I wouldn't agree with him.

"Fine. Where to next," I asked.

"I'm sorry, Princess. I didn't mean to upset you, I just wanted you to know. Are you finished eating?"

"Yes, and I know you didn't. I would rather know than not," I half smiled.

"Do you want to go look at the stars in the field? I don't really have that much else planned," he said.

"That sounds amazing," I said then we left the restaurant and drove over to the field. After arriving at the field we took one of Caleb's blankets and laid it out then just laid down and gazed up at the stars. We spent the next several hours doing this and just occasionally whispering little things to one other before I drifted into a light sleep.