Chapter 23 - Birthday Bliss or Blues

Chapter 23: Birthday Bliss or Blues

Repercussions from the swim debacle followed, the school principal wasn’t happy that I had been pulled out from detention by Bill.

But after a meeting where my Mom came in to discuss what happened, he understood what had happened, the coach was meant to be at the meeting also, but had abstained, saying he had more important things to do than deal with a whining student. He had given the principal his reasons for his decision in a previous conversation when the meeting had been discussed.

The principal tried to push the coach’s reason, stating it would look good on my school resume, if I had participated in school sports when it came to college applications in the future.

Mom pointed out that I was only a freshman, I had three more years to be part of a school team if I so desired, but a coach putting a student in detention for not wanting to be part of a team, was paramount to blackmail. That got the principal to back off quickly, scared of risking a lawsuit.

It might not have been the best idea to upset a coach like I obviously had, but his attitude wasn’t something I was prepared to deal with, if he persisted in his approach, or tried to get back at me due to not wanting to be part of his squad, I would have no problem in getting Bill involved in suing the school, if that didn’t get the principal to warn him off me, I would be prepared to push until he was removed from the school permanently.

But I had good things happen in my life to keep me cheerful and occupied, I had my birthday the next week, then the Ninjutsu state championships the following week.

So first would be my birthday, I was going to have a party, well if you could call it that, it was going to be a quiet affair, with just three other people there apart from my parents, Rory and Chloe as you would expect, but I had been surprised that Chloe had hinted that Gemma might be interested in attending, I was even more astonished when she accepted my invitation.

Mom had told the Burns sibling’s not to bother with presents, being so soon after Christmas, and to pass that on to Gemma, but birthday cards would be nice.

I had the misfortune this year, my birthday being on a Wednesday, that I had to suffer through a day of school before I could enjoy myself.

I was having the get together on Wednesday, rather than waiting till the weekend, which meant it would be short, since everyone had homework and chores to do, plus they had to get to sleep early enough as we had school again tomorrow.

The party started when the invited friends arrived, I was given three cards, two were accompanied by a kiss on the cheek, and blushes from the girls giving them.

It was great, we had a light meal of sandwiches, chips and sodas there was banter and laughter, teasing and more laughter, easily the best birthday I could remember.

Then everything fell apart, Mom left to go into the kitchen, when she returned she was carrying a cake, no problems so far, it had lit candles on it, as you would expect. Everyone started singing happy birthday towards me, then Mom put the cake on the table, I leaned forward to blow out the candles, everyone was now looking at the cake.

I looked past the candles and read the piped icing on the top, ‘congratulations to the new teenager.’ my face froze, my friends who were beside me, couldn’t help but be able to read the words also, to confirm it if there was any doubt, the number of candles burning on top were thirteen.

I didn’t think I had any breath left in my lungs, but I did managed to blow out the candles to the delight of my Mom, who was oblivious to the sudden chill that had descended in the room, Dad was giving me a worried glance, as Mom took the cake away into the kitchen to cut the cake into pieces.

“Uh Jack is there something you forgot to tell us?” Rory asked.

Before I could explain the circumstances, Chloe jumped in.

“He didn’t forget anything, he just lied to us the entire time we have known him.” Chloe screamed at me.

I winced, I saw Dad do the same, partly from the pitch of the scream, partly from the words screamed.

“Does it really matter how old I am.” I offered in faint hope.

“Of course it matters, friends wouldn’t lie about something this important, and I guess we were never good enough to really be friends after all.” Chloe shouted back. “Come on guys.” she added as she grabbed Gemma’s arm and practically dragged her out of the door, Rory gave me a look filled with disappointment and surprise, before he followed his sister.

I just slumped down in my chair, and Dad got up, came round and put a hand on my shoulder in support.

“Uh what just happened?” Mom asked with paper plates of cake in her hands.

“The cake happened, Mary.” Dad said.

“What about the cake.” Mom asked, confused.

“I didn’t tell anyone at school that I was only twelve when I started, that way I only had to contend with being a small nerd.” I explained.

“Oh Jack I am so sorry, I’ve messed up everything haven’t I.” Mom wailed and started crying.

“It’s not your fault Mom, Chloe was right, if I had been a proper friend, I would have trusted them and told the truth.”

I didn’t fancy any cake un-surprisingly, taking my cards I headed up to my room to think, well sulk really.

If I thought my birthday was bad, that was nothing compared to school the next day. I was back to being ignored by everyone, some of the students made a point of turning their back to me. I could also hear the whispers going on, together with the pointing, ‘only thirteen’ I kept on hearing all day.