Defenders of Harmony

by chillbook2

Happy Birthday to Me

BEEP!
BEEP!

My eyes flew open. I turned to my right to see my alarm clock on my nightstand flashing the time: 6:00 a.m. Time to get ready for the day. I sat up, rubbing my eyes with a yawn. I got up out of my bed, walked over to my bathroom. I used the toilet, washed my hands, brushed my teeth. You know, normal stuff. I opened my medicine cabinet, reached in and grabbed my contacts. I put them on and the world snapped into clarity. Closing my cabinet, I looked in the mirror. My short, white, spiky hair was an untidy mess, just the way I liked it. I grabbed a washcloth, ran it under a stream of warm water, and used it to wash my milk-chocolate face. After my hygiene was taken care of, I went back into my room to get dressed. Opening my drawer of clothes, I rummaged through it for some jeans. I couldn’t find any. Then I remembered they all needed to be washed. So, then, I put on a plain black t-shirt and left my room pants-less.

I went to borrow a pair from one of my roommates. Robert’s would be way too big, so instead I went into Isaiah’s room. Opening his door, I saw his appallingly neat room was sparkling clean, same as ever. I went over to his drawer and took out the blackest jeans he owned. I put them on, then walked over to his bed.

“Oi! Isaiah! I’m taking a pair of your je-” I began, reaching his empty bed. Isaiah never woke up before he absolutely had to. He may be super-neat, but man can he procrastinate. I shrugged it off, not too worried. Maybe he spent the night at his mom’s house, I said to myself, I didn’t see him get home last night. I walked across the hallway to my other friend’s room, planning to ask him about Isaiah’s absence. Opening the door, I said, “Rob, do you know what happened to Isaiah?” Silence. Walking in further, I saw that Robert was not in his room either. “Great.” I said to no one. “You’re gone too.” A little grumpy, I left his room, shutting the door behind me, and began downstairs. Ok, you may not understand why I was so upset, so I’ll explain. Today is the last day of our senior year in high school. I was planning on skipping, but if they don’t show up, we won’t get our yearbooks, we won’t get our stuff out of our lockers, and we won’t get our report cards. So, I kinda had to go. But anyway, I walked downstairs to make a cup of coffee. I was never much of a breakfast person. Breakfast normally fell into two groups: sweet things and meat things. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth and I’m a vegetarian, so I normally just stick with tea or coffee. I got to my kitchen, which was pitch black. I turned on the light and was greeted by my two best friends in the world.

“Surprise, jackass!” exclaimed Robert, my tall, wide, and pale friend.

“Are you idiots trying to give me a heart attack?” I asked irritably.

“I told you he would react like this.” said Isaiah. He looked just like me, except shorter and he wears glasses. “Relax, Chris. We were just trying to surprise you.”

“For what reason?” I asked, staring at them in confusion.

“Are you really that stupid?” said Robert with a smile. “It’s your birthday!”

I thought back on it. Whipping out my phone, I checked the date. Sure enough, it was June 24, making today my 18th birthday. Wow. I had been 18 for over fifteen minutes and didn’t even know it.

“It is my birthday, isn’t it?” I said dubiously. “Well, what did you do?”

“We made you breakfast.” said Robert, still smiling his madman smile that only Robert could pull off.

“What did you make, bacon and eggs? Sausage? Biscuits and beef gravy?” I asked sarcastically.

“Yes. We made all of those. Even though we are all vegetarians. It was really hard to make all of these things in one pot.” replied Robert, with equal sarcasm.

“We know you don’t usually eat in the morning, but Robert had the idea to make some breakfast for you.” said Isaiah, ignoring our satirical battle. “So he put together some really good oatmeal while I got your gifts and ordered your pie.” I never really liked cake, so ever since I was young I had pie for my birthday.

“Thanks for the effort, but I don’t eat oatmeal.” I said, trying hard not to make them feel like they wasted their time.

“Well, you’ve never had the privilege of tasting my oatmeal.” said Robert. When I went to protest, he cut me off. “Just try some. I swear it’s not poison. That’s going in your pie.” I give a small laugh, pull out a chair at the little round table and sat down.

“Well? Amaze me.” I said, as smugly as I could. Robert sat down a bowl of oatmeal in front of me, then went back to serve a bowl for Isaiah and himself. I took a nice, big spoonful and shoveled it in my mouth. It was amazing! Sweet and spicy at the same time.

“Ok. Don’t tell me.” I said after a couple spoonfuls. “I taste brown sugar, cinnamon, bay leaf and… ginger?”

“Holmes, you’ve cracked the case!” said Isaiah.

“It was elementary, my dear Watson. Although I don’t understand what made you pick these specific ingredients.”

“We’ve known you since we were 5. By now I’m pretty sure I know the types of things you’d like.” said Robert seriously. And he was right. This is the exact thing I would like. 13 years sure does teach you about a person. I hastily finished my oatmeal and got up to grab my jacket.

“Where are you going?” asked Isaiah, never missing a beat. “School doesn’t start for another hour and a half. Plus, you never go to school on the last day.

“I’m going to Jackson’s. I work today.” I replied. Jackson’s was a family restaurant, the only 100% vegetarian restaurant in town, run by Harold Jackson and Victoria Jackson. Not only were they like parents to me, but they let me stay with them while I was working things out with my mother. When that exploded out of proportion, I decided to move in with my two best friends.

“You can’t go to work now!” yelled Robert indignantly. “You gotta check out your presents.”

“Yeah! I didn’t go through the trouble of looking for these gifts for you to leave to go to work without looking at them!” said Isaiah. “Or is the great Christian Brooks to special to see what his friends got him?”

“Fine!” I sighed. “If I get in trouble for being late, I’m going to kill you.” I knew I wouldn’t get in trouble. I don’t officially start work until 8. I had plenty of time. “Where are they?”

“Look to your left, genius.” said Robert. I do as he says and sees a cardboard box, larger than a computer monitor, with my name written on it. I got up to investigate the treasures that were surely in the box, all the while reveling at how blind I could be. I opened the box and reached my hand in. I grabbed some soft fabric and withdrew it from the box. I held up the yellow garb, spreading out the arms to see it was a hoodie. Not just any hoodie though. On the hood itself was strips of pink, hanging off to one side. On the back were small yellow wings and 3 small butterflies in the lower corner. Turning it to see the front, I am greeted by bright cyan eyes. I didn’t believe it: Fluttershy was on my hoodie! Fluttershy was my favorite character, and I’ve been wanting this forever. I dropped my usually calm and reserved manner right then, jumped up and gave Robert and Isaiah spine-snapping hugs.

“You know… that’s not all… that’s in the box?” choked Isaiah, air being squeezed out of him from the force of my hug. I retracted and ran back to the box. Reaching in once more, I feel another hunk of fabric. Pulling it out, I saw it was a grey cotton shirt. On the back was nothing, but on the front was a pegasus stallion, black as the night, with silver eyes and white hair almost identical to mine. Above him were the words ‘Silver Rift’. These guys were awesome! First the hoodie, then they put my OC on a shirt? Insane! There was no way that this could get better. I was about to be proven wrong. I reached in for a third, and final, time and pulled out an envelope. I opened it and pulled out the card within. On the cover was Fluttershy with a party hat on and text above saying ‘Have a Happy Birthday. I mean if that’s ok with you.’ I opened it up, expecting to find a couple dollars, but instead found myself holding three tickets to Brony-Con.

“We’re going to Brony-Con next week!” I yelled, super excited.

“No we’re not. We’re going to Mine-Con, stupid.” said Robert, smiling sarcastically.

“You guys are the greatest! I’m gonna go put away this stuff, then I should really start leaving.” I said walking back upstairs with my gifts. When I reached my room, I decided to wear the hoodie to work but leave the shirt. I hang up my shirt in my closet and take one good last look in the mirror. When everything was in order, I grabbed my keys and ran downstairs. Nothing can ruin this day, I thought to myself, walking out of the house with my new hoodie on. It was a dream come true. I was going to Bony-Con with my two best friends ever. It was a dream come true for sure. Right?

Author's Note:

This is one of the first stories I've ever written. As a bit of a celebration for reaching 50 followers, I thought I'd share it and all of its sequels.

I have done no editing to this story since its original completion. This was over a year ago, and I know that this is terrible now. When I was writing it, I thought it was the bee's knees.

How foolish was I?

Comments

[Light Verse]

I like it... even if it was crappy I still would like the idea... And the characters, definitely the characters. But yeah good story, love it.