Strike force - Assemble

Chapter 2

The next morning Damian slept in, as he always did. Many found this very puzzling, but Damian did it nonetheless. At 10:00, when his body decided to wake up, he went downstairs.

"Happy Birthday!" Stacey greeted him with a hug.

"Thanks." Damian said, all smiles.

"Oh, look who decided to wake up!" Kate said, and gave her son a hug.

"Come on, don't you like having me out of your hair every now and then." Damian said with a straight face.

"Yeah, I do in fact. But it would be nice if you could stay more to help out." Kate said, with an equally straight face.

"Awwww, come on. Chores!?" Damian said, acting like a little kid. The two couldn't keep their straight faces on any more, and burst out laughing. Stacey didn't get what was so funny.

"What are you doing today?" she asked him.

"Don't know, I'll ask Amanda if she wants to do something." Damian said. "Maybe I could go over to Shane's house."

"Just make sure it's not here," Stacey said then hurriedly added, "so you don't have to do chores."

"Ok..." Damian seemed to bite the reason.

He went upstairs to go call Amanda. She didn't respond, so he tried Shane's number. No response there either. "I wonder what is going on," and then he remembered thinking that Stacey was up to something. He thought that them not responding could be connected to Stacey. He had a sinking feeling about just what Stacey might be up to.

"I'm just going to go shoot around for 30 minutes in the nearby park." Damian called to his mum.

Stacey took this as her opportunity, and got on a call with Amanda and Shane. "Amanda, I think Damian wanted to go out for breakfast with you. Maybe you should come here, help us set up while Damian is shooting, then you go with him, and Shane and I can finish setting up." Stacey said, mind racing like a clockwork toy.

"Good idea Stace." Amanda said.

They came over to help with the party set up. 30 minutes later, Amanda left as planned. The setup took another 35 minutes, and then Stacey texted Amanda. Amanda checked her phone. 'Party is set up,' the text read.

Damian and Amanda finished up breakfast, then Amanda asked Damian. "Hey, wanna go to your house and go do something there?" She asked.

"Ok, if that is what you want." He said.

"Well, let's go then." She said. She couldn't wait to see the look on his face when he walked into the surprise party. She texted, 'we're on our way,' to Stacey. Stacey told her mum and Shane to find a good space to hide from the door in the living room, where the party was set up. Amanda and Damian were bound to walk through the lounge. 5 minutes later, they arrived. Damian opened the door, then BANG!

"SURPRISE!" everyone shouted.

What they did not expect was Damian's reaction. He seemed shock, and his face went through a flurry of emotions, finally settling on sadness. He ran upstairs crying, but nobody knew why. They wanted him to be happy, not start crying. Damian rarely cried, so they all knew something was terribly wrong. Amanda raced upstairs after him, and Shane went to go as well, when Kate put a restraining hand on his shoulder.

"Let Amanda talk to him. Trust me, her approach is better in this situation." Kate told him. Shane knew that Damian's mum probably knew what she was talking about, and stopped.

Upstairs, Amanda found Damian broken down and crying on his bed. She just sat next to him and placed her arm around his shoulders, and the two sat there. Damian crying, and Amanda with her arm around him, letting him know that she was there. A few minutes later, with Damian still crying, she ventured a question.