The heartstopper

Chapter 20

The students read the Email from their teachers upon waking up.

Darcy, Elle, Tao, Nick, Isaac, Charlie and Imogen, - who they allowed in on their plans - had woken up at six to start preparing to throw Tara an amazing 16th birthday party. Tara was still asleep so the others had to stay quiet. Because of the sudden curfew, which was set to prevent anyone leaving their rooms from 10 pm - 7 am, they couldn't even plan in the boys room. Instead, they stuck to the via text method they used the night before.

Through messaging back and forth, they managed to decide that Darcy would distract Tara, even though she wanted to help decorate. They decided it would be best for Darcy to claim that she wanted to bring Tara on a birthday date, which would get Tara out of their room for a few hours.

Darcy was still incharge of getting food so she'd have to get that in order before the date. Isaac and Charlie would decorate - as best as they could with their limited supplies. Tao was still adamant on the idea of him bribing the kitchen staff with an interpretive dance to get them free cake, if all fails, he'll just buy a pastry in replacement. Elle would get drinks, leaving Nick and Imogen left to help where needed, which was decorating.

Tara had woken up around seven thirty so that's when Darcy took the time to talk with her.

"Tara!" Darcy exclaimed, giving her girlfriend a goofy smile.

"Darcy it's too early to be yelling," Tara mumbled groggily.

"But Jonesy! It's your birthday!" Darcy yelled.

"And so for my birthday you're giving me a headache?" Tara questioned, rubbing at her eyes.

"Well what else was I supposed to give you? We're stuck in a hotel, I was just trying to be creative," Darcy grinned, flopping down onto her stomach next to where her girlfriend layed on the bed.

"Mh, What time is it?" Asked Tara.

"Seven,"

"Then I'm going back to bed," Tara turned over in the bed to face the opposite way before Darcy stole her pillow.

"-Thirty, it's seven thirty on your birthday so get up so we can get breakfast and celebrate," Darcy tried to pull the other up into a sitting position.

"I can eat breakfast every other day as well, must it be right this second?" Tara groaned.

"I don't think she'll leave you one until you agree," Elle piped in.

"It's true, I won't, so get up and get breakfast with me in our pj's," Tara complied and sat up.

"Must it be in our pajamas?" Tara said, looking down at her two piece pajama set that she'd owned since she was thirteen.

"Yes, it must," Darcy replied, giving her a look as if to say 'duh'.

"Are you two going to join us?" Tara asked, looking at the bed Elle and Imogen shared.

"Nope, they're busy, let go," Darcy replied for them, pulling on Tara's arm. Tara laughed and replied, allowing her girlfriend to drag her out of the room and towards the elevator.

"You could have at least let me tame my hair," Tara complained as she realized her hair had fallen in her face. Darcy had barely even given her a chance to throw off her bonnet before she was dragged out the door.

Elle texted the group chat, letting her friends know that Tara was gone once they were far enough down the hall. Elle and Tao were unable to start their part of the plan until Tara and Darcy had left the restaurant, they had forgotten to discuss Darcy taking Tara somewhere else to eat but it was still early anyway.

"So what're we doing for decorating?" Isaac questioned.

"Yesterday we mentioned using the sheets to hang around the room," Imogen offered.

"We could probably head down to the lobby and ask for clean sheets," Charlie added.

"We could hook up someone's phone to the TV and watch Netflix," Elle suggested. She had the corde in her suitcase, it's been in there for years, she just never had a use for it at home, if she wanted, she could just use screencasting.

"Movie night!" Tao cheered.

"What kind of movie does Tara like?" Nick asked no one in particular.

"Well she said she prefers watching TV series instead so maybe she has a favorite show?" Charlie inputted.

"Maybe we can ask Darcy, if not, she can choose herself later," Elle concluded.

"If someone wants to join me, we can go down and ask for extra sheets," Isaac offered.

"I could, I guess," Imogen offered.

Isaac and Imogen went down to the front desk after asking if they could grab anything else when down there.

They wouldn't set up the decorations until later just in case Tara wanted to head back to their room to get ready for the day. Instead, they hoarded any supplies in the boys room.

"I'll text Darcy to find out where she put her fairy lights," Elle said, typing on her phone.

At around ten forty, Darcy rushed to text the group chat saying that Tara wanted to head back to their room quickly, luckily they now found themselves in the boys room.

"Where're the others?" Tara asked Darcy. They'd yet to see their friends minus Elle and Imogen that morning, making Tara a bit suspicious.

"Probably sleeping," Darcy shrugged, not wanting to ruin the surprise.

Halfway through lunch, Darcy had to run off to attempt to order free pizza in advance. While she was gone, she called for Nick to quote on quote "babysit Tara" when she was gone.

Darcy had come back to find Tara and Nick after a good forty or so minutes of disappearing off of the face of the planet. She sent Nick off once she was back to sitting with her girlfriend who gave her an odd look.

"Jonesy, I ran into Mr. Ajayi and Mr. Farouq and they told me that just because it's your birthday doesn't mean we can have alcohol, can you believe this?" Darcy complained.

"Maybe it's because we're still sixteen," Tara reminded the other.

"Sixteen or not, that is a hate crime. That's got to be homophobic in one way or another," She claimed.

"I'm sure they're hooking up," Tara chuckled.

"Homophobic!" Darcy yelled.

It wasn't until five pm that they'd allowed Tara back into their room. Tara probably had some sort of idea of what was going on as it wasn't hard to pick up on the odd behavior of her peers but they tried their best for a surprise party.