Happy Birthday Amadea! PV Closed

Kyden had never had a birthday party let alone been invited to one. He sighed as he walked out to the grounds. If it was for anyone but Amadea he would have just stayed in the Slytherin Common room doing exactly what he had been doing when he got the invitation. But it wasn't for anyone else it was for Amadea so there he was walking out to the grounds for this Surprise party for her.

When he was almost to the grounds Kyden began to panic. What if they expected him to bring a present. He didn't have enough extra money for things like that. All he had he needed for himself. He sighed once again. Then a brilliant idea flashed into his head and he turned around running back towards the castle. He sprinted to his dorm and dug through his belongings until he found his sketch pad he tore out a page and quickly added something to the drawing. Stuffing the drawing into his pocket, he ran back outside. 

He walked up to where he saw the Happy Birthday sign. So this was it he was going to his first birthday party ever. He laughed to himself it was kind of funny really he was 12 and had never gone to a birthday party. Oh well here goes nothing he thought.

Cecily had only heard Rhea Bishop mentioned in passing when she first approached the Gryffindor with her idea of a surprise party for their mutual friend, Amadea, but they quickly became an efficient team to plan the surprise. It was a day late, but they had taken their time making sure everything was absolutely perfect for the Hufflepuff. After all, she would never have another 12th birthday (although Cecily was seriously beginning to doubt the laws of time in this magical school). They worked together to make the guest list, find the location, and make the decorations. Cecily had even handmade five copies of an invitation and had them delivered to the invitees by owl, and Rhea had personally sent a note to Amadea to meet her in this clearing. So far, everything was going perfectly, and Cecily could not be more excited to see the look on Amadea's face when she saw all the hard work that Cecily and Rhea had put into planning and carrying out this party for her.

Cecily rushed down to the clearing that she and Rhea had agreed upon for the party, clutching the tray of cookies she had gotten from the House Elves for the occasion. She had meant to arrive early to help Rhea set up, but was running late, as usual. It was only five minutes before everyone else was supposed to show up, but it looked like Rhea had not gotten here much earlier; the redhead was still frantically bedazzling the clearing. Cecily stopped short as she saw the giant banner precariously perched in the trees, heralding Amadea's birthday in shaky calligraphy. Rhea must have made it, to capture Amadea's attention as soon as she reached the clearing.

"This looks amazing, Rhea! Great job!" Cecily said, putting the cookies down on the fold-out table. "I felt bad that you were setting this up all by yourself, so I stopped by the kitchen to get some cookies. I didn't know what you liked, but chocolate seemed like a safe bet...everyone likes chocolate, right?" the Ravenclaw continued, still taking in the scene. As Rhea put up the final touches on the decorations and clambered onto a rock, Cecily grabbed a cookie and took a seat next to her as guests began entering the clearing.

Bloody hell. That was, honest to goodness, Ami's first thought when she'd received in the invite. June 18? You've got to be kidding me... At least it wasn't in the morning. She'd been up late the night before and early today at Mia's surprise birthday party in the Small Hall, but there was no way she was going to miss Amadea's birthday party, even if it meant a severe lack of sleep. Hopefully, Amadea would still be awake and functioning to attend her own party.

It had taken a while to find a present worthy enough to be given to Amadea, but Ami had finally settled on one, and wrapped it up in a box and tied it with red ribbon. Twisting her hair into a respectable knot on top of her head, and touching the necklace at the base of her throat for good luck, she tugged on her boots and shuffled her way out onto the Grounds, lugging the box with her.

Clearing, clearing, clearing... ah, there it was. Upon reaching the clearing, Ami set her present down on a folding table that also bore a platter of cookies, and sat down on the grass next to Cecily. "It looks wonderful," she said ecstatically, gesturing to the surroundings around her. "I feel under-dressed," she added, laughing lightly. It was true, her clothes weren't the cleanest. Her Doc Martens had scuffs all over them, her shorts were torn and muddy, and her shirt (this one saying, don't text him back) had scorch marks from who knows what. But on her face was a wide smile, because hey! It was Amadea's birthday, what could possibly be bad about that?

"Kyden!" she added, greeting the Slytherin. "Good to see you, as well. Cecily, Rhea, you two as well." Where were her manners? She had totally forgotten to greet them.

[font=times new roman]Amadea had received a mysterious owl from Rhea, telling her to meet the Gryffindor on the Grounds in ten minutes. After the terrible day Amadea had experienced the day before, she could really use a pick-me-up. Hanging out with Rhea always entailed some sort of adventure. Amadea hurriedly pulled on her robes. As she exited her dormitories, her mind raced with the possibilities that could await her. She hadn't known Rhea for too long, but in the short time span they had known each other, they had experienced everything from a near death situation to attending a ball. She wondered what sort of adventure they would have this time. 

To be honest, she was still quite exhausted from the party she had attended the night before. While it had been a blast and she had enjoyed every minute of celebrating with Mia, Amadea had to admit that all of the partying was taxing to her energy levels. And of course, she had gotten little to no sleep the night before, her mind still racing, wondering why her parents hadn't sent any letters to her. She was worried more about them rather than hurt that they didn't remember her birthday...but to be honest, it was a good mixture of both. 

Clearing the thoughts from her head, she scanned the grounds, trying to find her redheaded friend. Of course, it proved quite difficult as many, many students at Hogwarts happened to have red hair. As she headed toward the clearing, Amadea squinted and almost was able to see a gathering of people. She wondered how many people Rhea had planned to meet. 

As she arrived in the clearing, Amadea's mouth dropped wide open. Rhea, Cecily, Kyden, and Ami were standing in the clearing, party decorations in hand. It looked as though they were desperately trying to set up for something. Amadea was happy to join them and help, and was about to step forward and offer her services when she glanced up in the tree and saw the banner. 

In fancy cursive writing, it read Happy Birthday Amadea Campbell! Her jaw dropped even more wide open. This party was for her? 

It looked as though they had just finished putting everything together, though Cecily was sitting on a rock eating a cookie, so Amadea couldn't be quite entirely sure. She stepped into view of her friends. "Um, hi," she said to them hesitantly. "Did you...is this...you did this for me?" she stuttered, unable to form coherent sentences. "Wow."[/font]

"Amadeaaaaaa!" Ami squealed, leaping to her feet at the sight of the (belated) birthday girl. "Lookin' fly for twelve." Striding over to her, Ami wrapped her arms around the other redheaded Hufflepuff, squeezing her in a hug. The girl looked like her really needed a pick-me-up, not that she looked dead or anything, no no no no. Just tired and stressed, burdened by the weight of school. Hopefully, this party would provide some reprieve for her, as Ami could definitely understand the weight of homework, social activities, and especially leadership...

Snapping her fingers (and letting go from the hug), Ami added, "That's right! You're a prefect now, aren't you? Congratulations, You definitely deserve it... just don't bust me too much, mkay?" she added as an afterthought with a hearty laugh. Seh knew she wasn't exactly the poster child for following rules, but being friends with two prefects now seemed a little... a little risky considering her reckless nature. Maybe Kyden and Amadea would begin to rub off on her?

"So, what's the plan?" she asked Rhea and Cecily, clapping her hands together. "Cake, games, presents...? And in what order?" Glancing at the banner and the hastily set-up party, she added, "Or we can finish setting up, and take some pictures?"

Cecily burst into a grin at the look on Amadea's face when she noticed Rhea's banner and the party they had set up. Cecily had noticed the look on her friend's face yesterday when no one had thrown her a party, but the Ravenclaw hoped that this would make up for it. Plus, Amadea was a Prefect now-- as Ami had pointed out-- and it was always good to stay in the good graces of friends in high places.

"Amadea!" Cecily yelled, excited. "Surprise and happy birthday and all that!"

After voraciously greeting the birthday girl, Ami asked for the order of events, eager to begin the celebration. "Well..." Cecily started, realizing the hole in their plan. "I can't speak for Rhea, but I hadn't exactly gotten that far. I was mostly just trying to get this all together." Cecily was about to suggest pictures when she realized that this was not the entire guest list. "Um, we had also invited a couple more people, but I'm not sure where they are. Maybe we could wait for them, and if they don't show up in a few minutes, we'll just start the festivities without them." Though she would feel bad about starting without one of Amadea's friends, this was supposed to be a fun party, and there was nothing fun about just sitting around (to most people).

Adam swore under his breath as he scrambled for an exit out of the castle. He didn't know what time it was now, but it was definitely not 7:30 -- and that was the only time that had mattered tonight. All day, Adam had been reminding himself about where he had to be. It had been entirely his fault when he had looked up at the clock in their common room and realized where he was supposed to be. He had hurriedly grabbed the terribly-wrapped gift from his dorm room and scrawled Amadea's name on the envelope of its card, and then practically fallen down the stairs as he ran for the door. He'd issued a quick apology to Phaedra that he knew he'd have to expand on later -- they'd been working on the upcoming Ravenclaw Lock-In together, and his absence probably wouldn't help her at all. With one final check to make sure he had everything in his arms, Adam had taken off, hoping he wasn't too late.

Unfortunately for him, "too late" happened way too often. As he neared the spot that had been listed on the invitation, Adam saw decorations of all kind strewn artfully around to make their small part of the grounds seem much more festive. There was a table of food laid out that looked extremely appealing, though the food was probably reserved for those that showed up on time. By far the most captivating addition to the party was a giant, really fancy looking banner with Amadea's name on it. It looked handwritten, but Adam couldn't imagine anyone being able to put in that much time and effort.

Next, he turned his attention to the attendees. Scanning the guest list in his head, Adam marked them off as he saw them: Rhea Bishop, Gryffindor Prefect and pyromaniac; Cecily Quinn, who had met Amadea at the same time as Adam but had already proved herself as a better friend; a girl who he assumed was Ami Procoppio, simply because she wasn't Serena Towers; and a boy that, by process of elimination, had to be Kyden Goodlow. Almost everyone was here, but Adam didn't know how much time they had accounted for before their guest of honor arrived. As his gaze slid to a familiar curtain of red hair, Adam sighed. Not enough.

Now that he had officially missed his chance to pretend to have been on time, Adam's next decision was how to come in. Should he just walk up, apologize, and hand in his gift while telling the truth? Or should he sneak around the tree anyway and hope that Amadea wouldn't notice his sudden appearance? Adam, you're taller than nearly everyone in your year, he chided himself. Just go in and act normal.

Taking a deep breath and setting a smile on his face, Adam jogged up and greeted his newly-aged friend with enthusiasm. "Amadea, happy birthday!" Handing her his gift and making sure the card went with it, he laughed nervously. "Hopefully this makes up for me arriving after the person I was supposed to surprise. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to get anything, so I figured I would just in case....hope you like it." Meeting Rhea and Cecily's gazes, he mouthed "sorry" and hoped that they could forgive him too. Then, finally, he turned to the two strangers and waved. "Hi! I'm Adam. Nice to meet you."

Everything seemed to be in place, except for their final guest. Adam wasn't sure whether or not he was supposed to say her name, and he really didn't want to spoil another surprise. Addressing Rhea, he asked, "We're just waiting on one more now, right? I can't wait to see what you guys have planned!"

Amadea was still in shock as she watched even more of her friends appear in the clearing, bearing smiles and gifts. Her eyes widened as everyone bombarded her with hello. All of these feelings were almost overwhelming and it made Amadea want to burst into tears, though happy ones though. 

She was distracted from the thought of sobbing as her redheaded Hufflepuff best friend wrapped her up in a giant hug, wishing her a happy birthday and saying something about how Amadea "looked fly." Amadea figured it was just one of those American slang phrases that meant odd things that didn't make sense to Amadea. She opened her mouth to clarify the meaning of this term with Ami but was too late, as Ami had already gushed on about what had happened to Amadea in the past few days. 

"Oh yes, prefect, yes," Amadea echoed, trying to keep up with Ami's train of thought that seemed to be going much faster than Amadea's mind was. "Oh no, of course I wouldn't give you a detention!" Amadea pasued and grinned wickedly at her friend. "Unless I'm the one overseeing it." 

Amadea then turned to greet some of her other friends, namely Cecily, who it seemed had organized the whole event with Rhea. She was still so touched that they had gotten this all together in such a short amount of time, and without Amadea knowing. Sure, it was a day late, but it was the thought that counted. 

"Wow, Cecily," she said. "This is really amazing. Truly. Thank you so much." She turned, taking in the few decorations. It was absolutely beautiful, especially considering two eleven year old girls had put it together in a few limited amount of time. 

Amadea turned and spotted another person rushing down to the clearing. It was (of course) Adam Harringtom, prefect of Ravenclaw. "Hi Adam!" Amadea said with a smile. "Oh you really didn't have to get me anything. But thank you so much!" Turning back toward the party planners, she asked, "What now?"