Everyone was there: Starlight, Melody, Bright Eyes, Patch, Clover, BonBon, Lancer, even Ace. This was going to be the best surprise party ever! Sweetheart flipped off the lights and slipped behind Ms. Hackney's desk. Just then the classroom door creaked open and a beam of light from the bright hall outside sliced through the utter darkness of the room.
Teddy poked his head in and surveyed the dark room. "What the....it's not Saturday again is it??" Muffled giggles and outright laughter filled the room as the lights flipped on.
"SURPRISE!!!" they all yelled, leaping from their dark hiding places. Sweetheart trotted over to a very surprised and speechless Teddy. She pulled him inside and over to his desk where a very fancy package covered with ribbons and bows (all in green and blue--Teddy's favorite colors) sat.
Teddy stared down at the package as if in a trance as Sweetheart muttered something about how she wasn't going to let another birthday of his pass by unnoticed and uncelebrated. Sweetheart handed Teddy her gift, urging him to open it. Teddy hadn't celebrated a birthday in a very long time, he hadn't even told anyone when it was. "How did she know? Why did she do this?" he wondered. Sweetheart's beaming smile faded when she saw how unhappy Teddy seemed.
"What's wrong? Don't you like your party?" Sweetheart asked.
"No. No I don't." Teddy answered, looking up at her. "I HATE my birthday! How could you do this?!?" Teddy threw down the unwrapped gift, turned, and galloped out of the room, away from the piercing stares and hushed utterances of his fellow classmates. Sweetheart froze in place, not knowing what to say or do.
"What was that all about?" asked Starlight up over all the confusion.
"I...I don't know. I guess I did something wrong." Sweetheart answered, tears flowing down her cheeks. Sweetheart's friends gathered around her and tried their best to comfort her. They knew how hard she had worked to make this day absolutely perfect.
"Don't cry over that selfish jerk Sweetheart, that boy doesn't deserve your tears," said Melody.
Ace and Lancer looked on from the other side of the room. Ace shook his head, "Boy, Teddy really out-did himself this time."
Thoughts and visions of the past flooded Teddy's mind as he ran. Memories of the way things used to be with his father, his mother...and his sister. All birthdays did was remind him even more of the past and what he had been trying to forget about it. No one here even knew about Rose, or the truth about his mother. Rose was Teddy's twin sister, but she had died when they were only six years old. Their mother had drown the year before during a bad storm while they were out on their boat. Teddy's father had always blamed Teddy for his wife's death, and was never the same after it. Teddy shook his head violently, not wanting to remember that tragic day. He ran until he could not run anymore, collapsing on the soft green grass.
