I’m not a bad person, but church sure does make everyone out like they’re evil or something.

  Of course my mom told the priest what I’d said.

  He told her he wanted me to go to confessional after my birthday.

  Like, jeez, happy birthday from God, now tell me what you did wrong.

  I’m not an expert, or a religious genius, but I’m pretty sure that’s not how confession works.

  Aren’t you supposed to tell the priest what you did wrong and not your daughter?

  That’s so typical of her.

  I bet she couldn’t wait to tell the priest everything.

  She gets back there in the church’s little booth and is all like “Just wait till you hear what she did this week, father.”

  So my mom makes everything I do way worse than it is, and like I said before, I didn’t do anything anyways, but I still had to go to confession after my birthday party.

  I was so nervous before the party, because I knew Adam and his friend Jeremy were coming even though I didn’t invite them.

  The day of the party arrived and, you guessed it, mom forgot to tell dad about the bee’s nest.

  You know what she did instead?

  She moved the picnic table to the other side of the yard.

  Yeah, the side away from the road.

  To make things even worse it butts up against where our neighbors, the McCartney’s, have their pool.

  Which just reminds everyone that we don’t have a pool.

  “So I can’t go swimming?” Abby asked.

  I bit my lip so hard. To keep from screaming.

  “That’s what I said, Abby. We moved the table out of the shade, but beside the pool we can’t swim in.”

  “That’s ok, Caroline. My mom’s afraid I might be allergic to chlorine anyways. It makes my eyes all itchy,” said Jessica.

  “It does that to my eyes too,” said Abby.

  “Oh god, please don’t tell me we’re all allergic to chlorine! I just got a new bathing suit, and I heard they have swimming classes at the high school!”

  We heard the screen door slam shut behind us and we turned to see Bobby and Chad carrying wrapped presents.

  They walked off my patio and into the yard towards the three of us.

  “Hey, Caroline, where do you want these?” Bobby asked.

  “Just put them on the picnic table with the others.”

  Chad put his down. “Happy birthday,” he said.

  “Oh yeah, happy birthday,” Bobby chimed in.

  “God, I hope you didn’t forget why you came,” said Abby.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Bobby grinned awkwardly. His cheeks flushed and he shrugged.

  “You guys didn’t see Adam or anything did you?” I asked.

  “Jeez, he doesn’t have far to travel. He’s literally just a few houses down,” said Chad.

  I scowled at him for that.

  I hated how sarcastic Chad could be sometimes, but his grin made up for it.

  Sometimes.

  “Yeah, I know, pooner, but I’m hoping he won’t come. Maybe he forgot about it or something.”

  Just then the screen door slammed shut again and Adam and Jeremy walked into my back yard carrying a wet birthday present between the two of them.

  I knew it was wet, I mean, I could see water literally dripping from the corner of the box.

  It completely changed the color of the wrapping paper, like, you could see where it was clinging, you know, like they’d used plastic wrap instead.

  I don’t think they noticed, because both of them were grinning like idiots, but the present was starting to slide out of the wet paper.

  “Hey, Caroline! Happy birthday!” said Adam.

  At least he was cheerful.

  Jeremy opened his mouth to say something too.

  Probably another "Happy birthday."

  Real original, right?

  But they were about to put their atrocity of a present on the picnic table, and I didn’t want theirs to contaminate the others.

  “Don’t you dare put that on the table! Oh my god, it’s soaking wet! What did you do? Fish it out of a stream?”

  Adam flinched, but Jeremy just put the present on the ground and smirked.

  “Don’t be like that; we tripped on the way over and your present got wet when we fell onto the grass instead of the sidewalk. We didn’t want to break it, you know.”

  “Yeah, I had no idea there was a puddle in Mrs. Finch’s yard,” Adam said.

  “Dude, your present’s coming out of the box,” Chad pointed where the bottom was sliding.

  They both actually had the nerve to look surprised.

  At this point, I just wanted them to take their present and leave.

  I looked around wanting to make sure Stacey Donovan’s mom wasn’t driving by, but thankfully the street was empty.

  “Oh, damn,” said Adam.

  “Watch out, man. Caroline’s mom doesn’t like it when kids curse,” Jessica said.

  I was about to tell them that I didn’t like it either, but Adam and Jeremy were busy messing with the front of the box.

  “What are you two doing?” I asked.

  “I was trying to dry it off, but I think we just made it worse.”

  I looked down and saw where the wet paper had come off and was sitting in clumps in my yard.

  I clenched my fists, angry that, just as I thought, these two were ruining my birthday party.

  But then I saw what was underneath the paper.

  “Is that a microscope?” I asked.

  Adam grinned a little.

  “Yeah, a good one too.”

  “What? You got her a microscope?” Bobby asked.

  “My mom got a good deal. They were getting new ones at the university, so we got an old one. But it works great,” Jeremy said.

  “Wait! You got her a used microscope? Wow, that’s even better.”

  “Shut up you guys.”

  I knelt down and tore the rest of the paper away from the box and took out the surprisingly heavy microscope.

  Gently, I laid it on the table beside of the other presents and looked it over.

  It wasn’t like I’d ever imagined myself with a microscope before.

  I mean, I wasn’t a real science geek or anything, but actually having one for myself, it was pretty cool.

  In a way.

  I suddenly felt curious, like I wanted to explore things around me.

  In a weird way, it was like discovering a new part of myself.

  “Adam, that’s really dumb, ok? You and Jeremy shouldn’t get a girl a friggn’ microscope for her birthday! I mean, really, what is this? Science class? It’s her party!” Abby said.

  I want you to know that I totally disagreed with her, but looking around and seeing Bobby, Chad, and Abby, and knowing they thought the present was lame made me realize what I had to do.

  “Yeah, I mean, jeez, you two!” I blurted out.

  Adam looked genuinely hurt, but Jeremy just rolled his eyes.

  “We actually got you a gift, like with our own money too,” he said. “Sure, it might not be perfect, but damn it, that microscope actually came from the both of us. Not our moms. Can you say that, Bobby?”

  Bobby snorted and shrugged.

  “This is a disaster,” I declared. “I just wanted all my friends to come here and have fun, and my parents couldn’t even get us a pi?ata!”

  Everything was happening so fast and I wasn’t sure what to do.

  Adam still looked really hurt, and I actually liked his gift!

  I wish I could’ve told him that I couldn’t act like it was cool in front of my friends.

  I don’t know if that would’ve helped or not.

  Instead, I thought yelling about my parents might make everyone see that this wasn’t my fault.

  Bobby, though, had another idea.

  “We can still act like you’ve got a pi?ata, Caroline!” he said.

  He picked up a rock.

  “Watch this!” he yelled.

  He chucked his rock as hard as he could at the bee’s nest.

  For a second everything seemed to hang frozen.

  The rock sailed through the air in a perfect arc towards the nest.

  It collided, knocking the hive onto the ground.

  I heard Abby scream as a black nightmare cloud rose above the yard and began to spread outwards towards the rest of us.

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