𝖢𝗁𝖺𝗌𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖲𝗍𝖺𝗋𝗌 || 𝖣𝖺𝗇𝖼𝖾 𝖬𝗈𝗆𝗌

JoJo With A Bow Bow

"You said last year was going to be your last birthday party."

October twenty-second, two thousand and ten, better known as my eighth birthday.

The previous year, I had told my siblings that I wasn't interested in having a party. Yes, maybe there could be a little get-together with some of my closest friends, but then we were at Walmart, and we walked past the birthday section. Needless to say, I knew I needed a party after that, so my mom and I got to planning. My parents rented out an indoor party venue, and everything else worked out.

On that Friday afternoon, my two siblings and I walked from table to table, thanking people for coming, and I soon realized how many people we had actually invited to the party. After we had attended around twenty tables, we decided to calm down and walk slower. I then started talking about how excited I was about the party, and then my brother commented something about me not even wanting a party in the first place. When I asked what he meant by that, he proceeded to explain.

Once he finished, I simply let out a chuckle. "Tell Walmart to not have cute mermaid decorations, then."

"I personally thought the butterflies were prettier, but you do you," Giselle commented and the three of us stopped right next to an empty table. "I'm gonna convince mom and dad to have another kid just to throw them a butterfly-themed birthday."

"Hey," I noticed the empty table. "Where's Mo and Mads?"

The table was empty, but all the bags and stuff were still there. The people that were previously sitting there were probably just around.

"They're over at the bounce house." I tore my eyes away from the table to look at Zane and then looked over at the pink, purple, and turquoise mermaid-themed bounce house. "And J's also over there, so I'll see you guys later."

With that, the eleven-year-old walked away from both of us.

"Are you gonna go hang out with them?" My older sister questioned. "Cause I'm gonna go hang out with Brooke and Kate."

Without answering, I ran over to the bounce house, and before I got inside, I looked back over my shoulder, watching my older sister walk over to the two girls she had mentioned. Once I got inside, I hurried to a corner to keep my balance.

"Helloooo!" The brunette landed right in front of me. "What took you so long?"

"My parents wanted me to go thank people," I answered, holding onto the right-side column even tighter. "But I got bored."

"That does sound a little bit boring." The girl agreed. "But not wanting to jump in a literal bounce house is even more boring." She held out her arms. "Come on!"

With a grin on my face, I let go of the column and grabbed both of her forearms. She then bounced back and we both started jumping together, laughing when we would lose balance, and twirling in circles until a body crashed into me, and like I was holding her, we both fell to the right side of the bounce house.

I grabbed onto the black netting and looked up while laughing, turning to look at the person who had made us fall. "Really, Mads, really?"

The girl in question laughed, sitting up straight on the floor and ignoring the way she would bounce off of it every few seconds. "It was--" She turned over to point at a bunch of other kids, but more specifically to a blonde. "Paige! She wanted to do it herself, but then she got scared, so I did it for her."

"You did well!" Paige exclaimed from the other side of the bounce house and we all laughed.

"Can we play tag in here?" Our other friend suggested and we turned to look at her. "It's a small space, so it's harder to escape."