The next day is my 16th birthday. I'm so excited. I don't even think about Izzie. I get a morning text from Evan. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!" It reads. I smile. "I know what I want for my birthday." I send. "???" He sends back. "SECOND FIRST TIME!!" I tell him. Sam goes crazy with birthday rituals, which are kind of nice, but super annoying. I go for my morning run, which Evan joins in on. He's slow and has a low endurance, but I'm glad he's here nonetheless. My dad lets me drive in his car. I'm hopefully going to get my license soon. I'm 16 now, afterall. When we get home, I see one of Sam's friends sitting outside. "Hey dude, what are you doing here?" I ask. "There's a surprise party for you inside. I hate surprises." He tells me. "Yeah, me too." I start to walk back to the car. "Sorry kid, we gotta do it." My dad tells me, as he pushes me back towards the house. I groan. We walk in the house, and the lights turn on. "Surprise!!" Everyone yells. I fake a smile. I didn't want a big party. "Hi." I say, to Evan and Sharice. They hug me. "Were you surprised?" Evan asks. "Yeah." I lie. The music starts to play, and I talk to Sam, who wants me to play some stupid game with him. "So, are you enjoying your party?" My mom asks, with a huge grin on her annoying face. "Nope." I tell her. I start to walk upstairs. She knows I didn't want this. "Where are you going?" Evan asks. "I'm going upstairs to change because my mom invited 1,000 people over without telling me." I tell him. "So, is it too early to sneak away for our second first time?" He asks. "Yes. It is too early. But that would be a great way to get back at her for throwing me a party I didn't want." I say. "Oh, yeah, she's like a major jerk." He says sarcastically. "I know this isn't exactly what you wanted, but it's happening, and it's kind of fun. So why don't you just dance your little butt upstairs, lose the uniform, change into some regular clothes, and try to have some fun?" Evan asks, looking into my eyes. "I vote hell yes!" Sharice yells. "Fine." I give in. I guess having some fun wouldn't be the end of the world.
I change into some regular clothes, and dance with Evan and Sharice. The songs are actually pretty good, and we all dance crazily. Sam asks me to do some weird dance with him for the birthday ritual, and he has Evan hide some gorilla thing. "Wow, super cool dance moves." I hear someone say. I immediately know who it is. It's one of the girls on the track team. Why would mom invite them? She knows what they did to my shoes. I hate them. I stop dancing. "Hey Newton, hey Sam." Izzie says. She's calling me Newton again. I run over to my mother. "Having fun?" She asks. "I was, until the bitches from Clayton prep showed up. Who the hell invited them?!" I yell at her. "Izzie and the track team? I did. I thought it would be a good way to mend fences, it's your birthday." She tells me. "No! That is not your place! I hate them!" I yell at her again. "I'm so sorry, Casey. Do you want me to ask them to leave?" She asks. "Yeah! And while you're at it can you ask everyone else to leave too? I never wanted this, I wanted something small! But you don't listen of course. You don't care!" I yell. "Chill out Casey. She went through a lot of trouble for this party." Evan says, as he walks up to us. "Are you seriously defending her? Whose side are you on?" I yell at him too. I can't believe this is happening. "There's no sides. She did something really nice for you. Hey, stop being a brat." He says, quietly. "Are you kidding me?" I ask. I run towards the stairs, wanting to get away from it all. "Wait!" Sam yells to me. "You didn't find the ickle bickle." Not this shit again. "Leave me alone! I don't care about your ickle bickle ritual thing or anything else! It's not even about me! It's just about Sam, Sam, Sam, like everything else in my sorry ass life!" I yell at him, immediately regretting it. I see Izzie staring at me, with sadness in her eyes. I run upstairs, not being able to stand it.
I lay on my bed in my room, blowing into one of the noise makers from the party. I hear a knock on my door. I roll my eyes. "Leave me alone, Mom or Evan!" I yell. The door pushes open, and I roll my eyes again. I look up to the ceiling. "Hey." I hear Izzie's voice, and I pop up. "Can I come in?" She asks. "Okay." Is all I say. I'm still pissed at her. She completely betrayed me over something I didn't even do. How is she gonna make up for that? Saying sorry isn't going to help. Izzie closes the door and stands in front of it. "Your brother's all happy because he found some creepy gorilla thing." "That's the Ickle Bickle." I tell her, annoyed. "Yeah, that's what he told me." She walks a little closer. I look away from her. "I like you guys." She says. She sits on the bed. I stare at the wall. "Dude, I'm sorry. About everything. I was a dick, and I got jealous. I was afraid of losing someone that I love." She tells me. I look back at her, into her eyes. "I would never come between you and Nate, you should know that." I say. "Screw Nate. I was afraid of losing you." She tells me. "Oh." I reply. "Before you got into Clayton I just felt so out of place, like I couldn't be myself. And with Nate, our lives are just so different." She says. "Like he's a huge douche and you're not." I say. "Yes." She replies. I smile for the first time in the past few days. "And then you and I got into that big fight and we stopped talking. I missed you, I really did. I just want my girl back. Sorry if that sounds stalkerish." She laughs. "It does. But I feel the same." I tell her. "Let's forehead promise to never leave each other again." Izzie says, as she smiles at me. "Okay. What is that?" I ask. "Come here, I'll show you." We move closer to each other, to the point where we're almost touching. She leans in and puts her forehead on mine. We laugh. "That's it." She says. We stay in this position, both of us smiling. "Is it obvious that I just made this up?" She says. We laugh again. I can't help but stare at her lips. I see her eyes drifting to mine too. She's beautiful. We both move our heads closer together, until our lips are about to touch. Izzie bites her lip. My stomach fills with butterflies, and I start to sweat. Is this really happening? Are we going to kiss? I feel the electricity and tension grow between us, then the door opens. We both quickly separate. It's my mom. Damnit. "Sorry. I just wanted to let you know that the cake's ready."
We sit awkwardly on my bed for a minute, until we get up. I can't help but think about what just happened. I really wanted to kiss her. I try to snap out of it. I'm with Evan, and I love him. Being with Izzie would be ridiculous. Evan is standing at the bottom of the stairs when we get down there. "Hey. I'm sorry I was being lame earlier." I tell him, as I kiss him deeply. I want to kiss him, to forget about Izzie. I don't even know why I thought I liked her in that way. Ew. I feel her burning holes in my back as I kiss him. My mom sent everyone home except for Sharice, Zahid, Evan, and Izzie. They sing twinkle-twinkle little star to me instead of the happy birthday song before I blow out the candles on the cake, because Elsa knows I hate that song. Sharice wraps an arm around me, Evan kisses my forehead, and I see Izzie standing there awkwardly. Soon everyone goes home, and I can finally be alone with my thoughts. For some reason I can't get Izzie out of my head. I'm just glad she warmed back up to me.