Saturday afternoon, we were bombarded with a classroom full of preschoolers at the trampoline park for Coraline's fifth birthday party, specially hosted by Zoey and Chester. The Coven's birthday party will take place next weekend, since this was specifically for preschool-aged children. Of course, Mr. and Mrs. Collin came to their granddaughter's birthday party with some of their friends. Additionally, Madeline and her husband brought their two-month-old vamp baby because she wasn't going to miss her little sister's special day.
"Yay!" Tons of children screamed and shouted in excitement as they jumped and ran around the party zone where Zoey previously made a reservation for.
Kai pursed his lips at the long tables with Ivan, Ace, and Jack, because he had forced his friends to come to share the suffering with him. The place was already packed full of kids and their families who were not part of our party, which became a double punishment for them. However, Rome, Glenn, Sharlene, Rose, and Mia came willingly to assist Zoey and Chester, so they aren't tormented by it.
Similar to Kai, Ivan unraveled a grumpy scowl on his face because he despised human children, and he merely tolerated vamp children. Mia, on the other hand, adored all children. She was enthusiastically involved in helping the kids put on their cute party hats. A few times, she has begged Ivan to have a vamp baby because she wants to start her own family, but Ivan consistently ignores her every time.
Ace almost feels the same way with all the kids, but he tolerates vamp kids better. Whereas, I have seen Ivan can be sterner with them. Nevertheless, I know Rose had to trick Ace into getting pregnant because he didn't want a vamp baby, but the way he held his newborn son told me he had no regrets.
Rose disliked human kids, but after having her own baby, she seemed to develop a maternal instinct.
To everyone's surprise, Rose sat in a chair and painted the children's faces according to their preferences. Coraline chose a glittery butterfly on her face. Several girls opted for colorful unicorns or flowers. Most of the boys, including Colton, selected Spiderman or Batman.
More on the same page as my husband, Jack only hated human kids, like Kai, but he loved vamp kids, which I believe he should since he has Ian and a little vampiress baby on the way.
Then you have Glenn, who had a passionate heart for both human and vamp kids alike. He cherished showering their growth with knowledge. Naturally, he volunteered to play party games with the kids who wanted to play games, such as pinning the tail on the donkey.
Meanwhile, Sharlene sat next to my right at the table with us as we were filling the party bags for the kids since Chester forgot to do it last night.
"Woohoo! You guys don't know what you're missing!" Rome chimed as he did another backflip on the trampoline, yet his grumpy friends ignored him at the table.
Of course, how could I forget about Rome? He's a kid at heart, so of course, he loved all immortal and non-immortal kids and babies equally.
"I feel so alive!" Rome's exuberant voice echoed through the room as he somersaulted around, his youthful energy contagious to the children surrounding him. "Woo!" he exclaimed, his eyes sparkling with joy.
I still find it hard to believe he's one of Kai's advisors. Despite his powerful role, Rome's behavior remains unchanged from that of a child. In all honesty, I believe my twelve-year-old nephew Joshua possesses more maturity than Rome. One day, he'll make a wise Alpha for the Collin Coven once he matures into adulthood.
I reckoned as this small boy approached Kai, and tapped his shoulder between us, which made me nervous because he huffed in annoyance.
"Are you Coraline's Uncle Kai?" he asked as Kai rolled his eyes as he was leaning back in the chair with his arms crossed over his ribcage.
"He is Coraline's favorite Uncle," I answered the little boy for him, and the boy cocked his head.
"You look so boring and grumpy," he squinted his eyes, observing Kai.
"I can assure you, I am plenty of fun," Kai surprisingly spoke in a guttural voice.
"I bet my Uncle is more funner than you!" the boy mocked, spitting his tongue out at him.
"Funner is not a word you little..."
"Kai, he's four years old!" I cut in before he could finish whatever else he was about to say.
"Funner is a word!" the boy gruffed back, being just as ignorant as Kai.
Losing his temper, Kai snapped, "If you keep pestering me, you and your uncle will be lucky to wake up tomorrow!"
"Mommy!" the poor boy bolted in hysterics.
"Wow, that kid can run fast," Ivan chuckled across the table from us.
I smacked Kai's shoulder as his friends broke out into laughter.
"What was that for?" Kai shamelessly smirked like he did nothing wrong.
"He was only a little boy!" I snapped.
Sharlene backed me up as she gave it to him. "Goodness Kai, you're lucky I'm not sitting beside you, or I'd smack you too."
"You two are defending a little boy with a big disrespectful mouth. I'll tell you right now, if our boys act like that, they will regret it!" Kai warningly gruffed as his friends kept laughing.
"You're starting to sound like your grandpa Vlad," Ace remarked, sitting between Ivan and Jack while he held his newborn on the space between his shoulder and neck.
"I agree with you on that last part, but again, he was four," I still chewed his ear, but Kai could only chuckle at me, yet I wasn't worried about his careless behavior because more backup was coming.
Zoey came over and lectured him, "Kai, you made a promise to be nice."
"I didn't hurt him," Kai smirked with hunger glistening in his eyes. "Yet."
"Kai, honestly, you are impossible at times," Zoey huffed. "Just please do this for Coraline. It's only another four hours, and the party will end."
"Alright, I'll keep my mouth shut, but you better keep those little pests away from me," Kai seemingly negotiated, and Zoey agreed, nodding her head.
"Done!" She walked away. "Alright, kids, it's time to sing Happy Birthday, and then will open up the presents while Uncle Kai gets everyone a slice of cake and ice cream!"
"Yay!" The small kids cheered, circling Zoey, and Kai slammed his head on the table. She certainly paid him back on this one.
Across from us, Ivan, Ace, and Jack laughed themselves nearly out of their chairs. If Ace wasn't holding the baby, I'm sure he would have fallen out of his chair from how hard he started to lose it as Kai was getting out of his seat. Despite the rumble in his vocals, he still listened to her.
"Let's go, you three are helping me," Kai demanded, pointing his finger at Ace, Ivan, and Jack.
"I can't," Ace dismissed himself. "I got a baby."
"Rome!" Kai hollered as Ivan and Jack willingly got up to help him as he let Ace off the hook from helping him.
"Woohoo, I love cake and ice cream," upon hearing his name, Rome was quick to bounce off the trampoline, and he came flying over to the table to help them set up the plates while Chester put the candles on the cake.