Emma's Six

Anna's Birthday

Anna seems quiet at school today. We are all working hard on our history project, putting together a dance routine for the song's chorus, but Anna's not suggesting any ideas. 'Anna, are you okay?' I ask her at break. Anna nods but doesn't say anything. She starts walking, and I walk beside her. She sighs, then turns to me.
'My birthday's coming up, but my family won't celebrate.'
'Why won't they? You're their family.'
'My brother believes that girls aren't good for much, and he became the head of the household when Dad was admitted.'
'Your brother can't control everything.'
'You're right.' Anna smiles. 'He can't control who my friends are, for one thing. We all stuck together through thick and thin. Yes, we had our rough patches, and yes, we all got married again at some point after Henry, but we all agreed to stick together.'
'And it looks like we did.' Anna nods, her smile brightening. Catalina, Anne, Jane and Kitty walk over to us.
'We have the best friends in the world. Not many people can say that their friends have been there for them all the time.'
'Besties forever?' Anne asks, offering her pinkie fingers to Catalina and Jane.
'Besties forever,' we agree and link pinkies.

The bell rings, but we all feel brighter. At lunch, Anna is throwing herself into the routine and trying her hardest to keep us motivated. 'Anna, when's your birthday?' I ask when we stop for a quick break.
'22nd September,' Anna says. 'It's a Friday, so I'm not expecting a big party or anything.'

When I get home, Mum and Mummy are sitting in the kitchen. 'Mum, Mummy, can we talk?'
'Sure, what is it?' Mummy asks, and the two women watch me as I sit down at the table.
'Anna's birthday is on the 22nd of September, and her family won't celebrate. Let us do something for her. She's been down today because of it, and I want to do something to make her feel better.'
'That's a lovely idea, Emma,' Mum says. 'Talk to your friends tomorrow and see what they say.'
'I will,' I agree. 'But I think Anna should have a say in what she wants to do. It's her birthday, after all.'

The next morning, we walk into school together, and I think about bringing up the topic with Anna. 'Anna-' I begin.
'Oi, Cleves!' We hear someone yell. We turn to find Henry standing behind us.
'What the hell do you want with us?' Anna demands.
'I can't believe that your family refuse to celebrate your birthday! How does it feel to be unwanted and unloved?'
'Stop it,' I snarl at Henry. 'Anna's not bothering you, so leave her alone.'

Henry ignores me. 'No man wanted to marry you because you were so ugly!' His friends come up behind Henry, and they start laughing. I pull Anna away from them.
'He shouldn't have said that.'
'I deserve it,' Anna looks down at the ground and kicks it. Our friends follow us, and we head to the girls' toilets.

'Anna, you don't deserve it,' Kitty says. 'You are beautiful, smart and courageous. Henry was a jerk, and you shouldn't listen to what he says.'
'I can't help it,' Anna says. 'After our marriage fell through, he became friendly. He treated me almost like an equal. I didn't have the same trauma as you guys.'
'Your trauma was bad, and you should have told us much sooner,' Catalina says. 'Remember, we are your friends. We'll do whatever we can for you.'
'Thanks, guys. I needed that.' The bell rings, but none of us moves towards the classrooms. We can't leave Anna while she's in this state.

'But Henry's right. My family don't love me enough to celebrate my birthday.' Anna's shoulders slump.
'We love you,' I say. 'And we'll celebrate your birthday with you.'
'You will?' Anna looks at me, her brown eyes sparkling. 'You mean that?'
'I do. You are our friend, Anna, and we'd be terrible friends if we didn't celebrate your birthday.' Anna pulls me into a hug. It takes me a moment to register what's going on, but I quickly hug her back.
'Thanks, Emma.'

That afternoon, we went to my place to continue working on our history project and prepare for Anna's birthday. Mum and Mummy are happy for us to celebrate there. 'Just don't ask me to cook!' Mummy says. 'The last time I tried that, I almost burnt the kitchen down.'
'We won't ask you to do that,' Anna assures her. 'And I don't want you guys to make a big thing about it.'
'Not make a big thing of it?' Anne echoes. 'Are you sure that you're Anna of Cleves?'
'Sure.'
'We are the six queens, we always have big celebrations, and that is what you'll get.'
'I guess I should have expected that.'
'Yes.'

On the morning of Anna's birthday, we have almost everything ready. We all agreed to have a movie night and pizza since that was what Anna wanted to do. Mum and Mummy are buying a cake this morning, and we're all picking a couple of films while we're at school. Anna already made a list of the ones we own, and she wants to watch, so we'll go through them.

'How about Britannic?' Anna asks.
'It's a fifteen; Emma's too young to watch it.' Catalina replies. 'She's twelve.'
'That restricts us a lot.' Anna crosses off a whole load of films off her list. 'Lady Jane?'
'That could work.'
'Titanic?'
'Future stuff for Emma, and we don't want to explain the tragic situation that she will face.' Anne says. 'I don't think we're ready for depressed Emma again.'
'No, maybe not.' Anna crosses that film off. 'The Secret Garden?'
'I love that film!' Kitty says.
'Jaws?'
'Is that a dentist thing?' Jane asks.
'Maybe,' Anne says slowly.
'It has a shark on the front cover,' I say. 'And I've had enough of sharks since Juno and Howard left a shark film running after I woke up from a nightmare and went downstairs.' I shudder. That is one of the things I've never told my parents-and one of the things that kept me awake at night for years.
'What happened in the film clip?' I shake my head. 'Emma, what happened?'
'A shark jumped on a boat and killed a guy. There was a lot of blood.'
'That was Jaws. How old were you?'
'Nine. I think they put it on mute rather than turned it off, but I think I still heard some audio.'
'Then we're not watching Jaws. No reason for you to wake up screaming unnecessarily.'

In the end, we pick Lady Jane and The Secret Garden. All the other films on the list related to stuff happening in my future or were too scary. Lady Jane will then happen in my future, but it doesn't directly link to us. The only part that links to us is right at the end.

We head home and get the films ready. Mum and Mummy have sorted out the food, and we're ready to celebrate Anna's birthday. We all got her some cards, but Anna told us not to worry about gifts. 'The fact you are all celebrating with me is enough,' she assured us. But we still wanted to do something special. We know that Anna loves fountain pens and stationery, so we all put our money together to buy her some nice things. We gave her a red fountain pen with black ink, a hardback lined notebook with a red front cover, a pack of highlighters and some glitter pens. 'You didn't have to do this for me,' Anna says when she unwraps her presents.
'We wanted to get you something special but then remembered that you love stationery so that it would be perfect,' Kitty says.
'Glitter pens! I never had glitter pens before. Thank you!'
'You're welcome,' I say. Seeing Anna happy makes me smile. At least Anna will have a happy birthday.

On Saturday, we all meet up at the park. 'Thank you for everything you did yesterday,' Anna says. 'It means a lot to me.'
'I'm glad we could make you smile again,' Jane says. 'Come on; we've still got to finish the choreography before we start filming.' We all head to Jane's house to start practising.