Andy's Birthday Bash

“You all must be wondering why did I brought you here,” Zack started, smirking at himself, he always wanted to say such a mysterious sounding phrase. 

“Yeah, kinda,” Mari agreed. She was laying in the couch, occupying as much of the space as she could, and sending looks of reproval to Hibbie and Abbie, who were sitting in the other couch, snuggling and waiting for Zack to finally tell what he wanted. 

“As you all are aware, Andy’s birthday is coming,” Zack continued. “In three days.” 

“I didn’t know it was so close!” Hibbie squeaked in surprise and excitement. Mari only rolled her eyes. 

“Well, I knew that, and I even got already a cool gift for her,” Mari said, proud of herself, making Abbie and Hibbie roll their eyes. 

“Anyway,” Zack started again, trying to stop the bickering before it really started. “I want to make a surprise party for Andy but to do so I’ll need the help of my dear family and any friends you guys can recruit.” 

“I’ll take care of the decorations!” Mari was fast to say, soon standing up, a mischievous smile in her face, already planning all the ‘cool stuff’ she could bring to the party. 

“I can make a cherry pie but I have no clue how to make a birthday cake, Zack,” Abbie started, wrinkling her nose. 

“Don’t worry, Abbie, I already have an idea for that, but I’ll still need your help with the rest of the food!” Zack smiled. 

“Sure thing, boy! Andy will have the most delicious party in town, I can assure you that.” Abbie returned the smile, trying to think about the kind of food she could make. 

“I can help with the food too, if there is not too many cats for that,” Hibbie said with a small voice, giving a warm smile. 

“Of course, Hibbie, I was already expecting your help.” Zack gave back the smile, then picked paper and pencil. “First we will need to think about the guests, and I was hoping you all could help me with that?” 

“Sure, don’t forget to invite Sam and Hawthorne, they’re cool,” Mari said, approaching Zack’s list. 

“Alright, I have already Tib, Ygrai,” Zack started, pointing the names with his pencil. 

“Who even is Ygrai?” Mari said, confused. 

“Ah, I think it is that pink and blue mothcat that likes eggs? Andy gives all her egg-shaped rocks to him,” Hibbie chipped in, approaching the list as well. 

“Yes, that’s him. Alright, I put in the list too Sam and Hawthorne,” Zack looked to Mari, receiving an approving nod from her. “Noor, Myrrh...” 

“Isn’t Myrrh a little old to be in Andy’s guest list?” Mari interrupted again. 

“Since Andy isn’t as close-minded as you, no, she isn’t. Andy have friends of all ages and it’s not a problem. Besides, Andy really looks up to Myrrh, and I’m sure she would love to have her idol in her party,” Zack said firmly. “Anymore questions?” 

“Ugh, I was just asking.” Mari rolled her eyes, feeling even more grumpy than before. 

“Alright, continuing, I have Babb and her family, Tammy” Zack made a brief pause waiting to be interrupted again, when it didn’t happen he finished: “And Bryer, Aelin and Cress too.” 

“I’m sorry to interrupt, Zack, but isn’t Aelin that little cat who keeps trying to steal things from everyone?” Hibbie said, now concerned about what kind of friendships Andy was getting. “How did Andy even met her?” 

“I believe Cress was the one to introduce Aelin? And Andy really likes Aelin’s crafts so they became friends,” Zack said thoughtful. “But I believe that if we keep an eye on her everything will be fine.” 

“Fine, it’s Andy’s party after all, she is the one we should try to please.” Hibbie shrugged. 

“Now I need help with the rest of the guest, any ideas?” Zack looked to the rest of his family, looking for help. 

“Isn’t she friends with that sparkling gal and her yellow kitten?” Abbie said, trying to remember names. 

“Oh, yes, Liana and Keona, right?” Hibbie made a concerned expression. “But I’m not sure if she’ll be able to go, she and Rubicu just had kittens, twins!” 

“Well, it doesn’t harm to invite.” Zack wrote then ‘Liana, Rubicu and kittens’ in his list. “Uh, maybe we should invite Lovelace too, he is Liana’s brother, and if she really comes she may need the extra help with the kittens.” 

“That sounds nice, Lovelace really seems like a good guy, I’m sure he’ll be a great addition to the party,” Hibbie concluded. “Oh, I think Tori is friends with Andy too? Maybe we should invite her and her sister Lori!” 

“Of course, how could I forget them!” Zack kept writing the names. 

“Hey, did you invite already that weird trout-cat with that glowing yellow eyes?” Mari asked, sighing when she met the confused faces of her family. “That trout I caught when I was trying to get the mouthscouts fishing badge, that Andy said that he was her and Tib’s friends, you know?” 

“Oh, yes, I remember, his name is Trout, right? Will put him in the list.” Zack then wrote 

‘Trout friend (ask Tib)’ in the list. “Any more ideas?” 

“I think this is all, I can’t remember anyone else!” Hibbie said, sitting back in the couch by Abbie’s side and whispering about food with her. 

“I’m out of ideas too.” Mari shrugged, looking at the floor. 

“Hey, it’s alright if I invite my pirate friends? They could help us with moving the stuff for the party,” Abbie asked, stopping her whispered food gossip with Hibbie. 

“Of course, the more the merrier, right?” Zack added ‘Abbie’s pirate friends’ to the list as well. “Can you invite them?” 

“Sure thing!” 

“Alright, so it’s time to start the preparations. I’m going to talk with Babb and her family, Noor and Tammy, I’ll invite them and see if they can help us.” Zack made a quick pause, looking at the guests list. “Mari, you said you wanted to be responsible for the decoration, so go look at the basement to see what we have for decoration and I’ll let with you some flower tokens to buy things like balloons and plastic plates and things like that.” 

“Sure thing, sir!” Mari said, giving her mischievous smile. 

“Mari, I’ll give you the money believing that you are only going to spend it in decoration for the party, so please don’t disappoint me.” 

“I won’t! Have a little faith in me, Zack,” Mari said a little offended. “I want to do something nice for Andy too!” 

“Fine, I believe in you.” Zack gave a little pat in Mari’s head, trying to reassure her. “Now, Abbie and Hibbie, could you two buy the ingredients for the foods and maybe make a list of what kinds of food we can make?” 

“I’m already on it!” Hibbie said, showing her still short list of foods. 

“Isn’t my sweetie such an efficient cat?” Abbie asked, giving little kisses in Hibbie’s head. 

“Uh,” Zack, noticing how uncomfortable Mari was with the situation, decided to say something. “Everyone knows how I hate to agree with Mari, but, you two, stop being gross, please.” 

“Sorry!” Hibbie said, blushing and pushing Abbie away from her. 

“Aren’t you two such party poopers?” Abbie rolled her eyes. 

“Yes, we are. I’ll go invite everyone and ask Babb and Tammy for kitchen help,” Zack said, making notes in his guest list. “I asked Blue and Plum to distract Andy until dinner, so we have this time to get everything planned. They will distract her until the weekend so we can have everything ready for the weekend. If any of you can help distract her too, it would be nice and make everything less suspicious.” 

“Yeah, once I finish the decoration I’ll go out with Andy, I bet Sam and Hawthorne wouldn’t mind going with us too,” Mari decided, walking to the door. “If you have finished here, I’m ready to find some badass decoration for my favorite cousin.” 

“Yes, I have finished, Mari. Good luck.” Mari nodded and got out of the house, leaving Zack with Hibbie and Abbie. “If you two don’t have any questions, I’m going to start inviting people then.” 

“We are good! We will finish the list and then go buy the ingredients,” Hibbie assured Zack, waving a goodbye to him. 

-----  

Mari ran around looking for her favorite (and only) followers, finding them by the beach. 

“Sam! Hawthorne!” 

“Hey, Mari! Look with Sam found,” Hawthorne pointed out to a weird invertebrate, that probably would make Andy scream if she saw it. 

“That’s gross, I loved it!” Mari said, approaching the bug. “What the hell is that?” 

“Don’t know, just thought it looked cool.” Sam shrugged. 

“Nice,” Mari said, examining better the invertebrate, but soon remembering her mission. “Anyway, I have something really cool to tell you, can you guys keep a secret?” 

“Yeah!” the two almost yelled in excitement, coming closer to Mari. 

“Alright, alright. So this weekend is Andy’s birthday and we are planning a surprise party, and you two are invited.” Mari made a pause, letting the two express their contentment with it. “But I need your help with finding the most badass decoration this town ever saw!” 

“Nice! But where do we find it?” Hawthorne asked. 

“Eh, I don’t know. I’m supposed to go look in Zack’s house for any decoration we can use and like tomorrow go buy with it’s missing. So you two could go look for something cool and tomorrow you guys help me chose whatever we still need?” Mari shrugged. 

“Cool! I think mom have some halloween stuff in a closet or something,” Sam said. 

“Nice, so go see what you can find and tomorrow after lunch you bring me the stuff and we go buy the rest of the stuff, alright?” Mari said, already taking some steps towards her home. “Ah, and try to not let Andy discover! She’s playing somewhere with Blue and Plum until dinner.” 

“Sure! No way Andy is discovering it!” Sam reassured Mari. 

“Cool, thanks for the help, see you later!” Mari waved a goodbye and started her way back home. 

----- 

Zack could still see to where Mari was going when he leaved home. He assumed she was going to recruit the help of Sam and Hawthorne, what Zack decided wasn’t a worse idea than letting Mari do everything alone. He calmly started to walk to Babb’s home. He would need her help to make all the food, and hopefully he would find Tammy and she would have the time to make the birthday cake. 

“Hello, Zack!” Tammy greeted, approaching the blue mothcat. 

“Ah, hello, Tammy. I was just thinking about you!” Zack smiled. “Do you remember my little sister?” 

“Andy? Of course! How is she?” Tammy smiled back. 

“She’s just fine! Her birthday is this weekend, and I was wondering if you would like to come to the surprise party we are planing for her?” 

“Of course! I’ll try my best to go!” 

“Feel free to bring too any family or friend you want!” Zack started. “And I was wondering too how are your cake orders? If you don’t have too much work to do, I would love to order a cake from you, for Andy’s party.” 

“For this weekend?” Zack noded. “It may be a little hard, but I can do it!” 

“Ah, thank you! I was worried I wouldn’t find someone as talent as you to make the cake,” Zack said, embarrassing a little Tammy. 

“Oh, thank you! What kind of cake would you want?” 

“I was thinking about white chocolate and blueberry cake, what do you think?” Zack said with a smile. 

“Sounds yummy! I’ll try my best to have it ready by the weekend!” Tammy said. “I need to go now, see you later, Zack!” 

“Goodbye Tammy, and thank you again!” Zack finished, letting Tammy go her way. With the cake finally off the way, things got a little easier for the blue mothcat. 

He kept walking, until reaching Babb’s house. Outside of the house, Lulu looked like she was trying to dig something out of the garden. “Uh, hello? Is Babb home?” Zack asked, carefully approaching Lulu. 

“Why do you want to know?” she asked, turning to face Zack. Half of Lulu’s fur was more mud than anything else. 

“I’m planning a surprise party for my little sister birthday this weekend, and I wanted to invite her and her family to come,” Zack tried his most polite voice. “So you are invited too, of course.” 

“Nice. My sister is in the kitchen,” Lulu said, going back to dig in the garden. But before Zack could do anything, she started to talk again. “Just don’t tell her what I’m doing here.” 

“Uh, sure?” Zack said a little confused, it wasn’t like he had any idea what Lulu was doing anyway. He soon decided to enter the house, going straight to the kitchen. 

“Oh, hello, Zack!” Babb greeted cheerfully. “If you came to play with Sam or Tib they are already out! But if you want to stay a little more, my cake is almost ready.” 

“I’m not looking for them, I was in fact looking for you, Babb!” Zack smiled, sitting at one of the chairs. “It’s Andy’s birthday soon and I’m planing a surprise party.” 

“That’s really nice, do you need any help with the food? I can cook something for you!” Babb said, checking her cake. 

“I was hoping you would say that! Because I do need some help, Tammy already agree to cook the cake, so I would just need help with the general food for the party,” Zack started, grateful for being surrounded with such helpful cats. “I already got help of some other cats, so just help with as much time as you can!” 

“Do not worry, Zack, I didn’t have anything to do this week anyway,” Babb said, taking her delicious cake out of the oven. “Let me get you a slice.” 

“Thank you, Babb, I’m sure it’s as delicious as always.” Zack tried the cake, savoring the strawberries in it. “Wonderful! By the way, before I forget it, please pass the invite to Andy’s party to the rest of your family, they are all welcome to join.” 

“I’m sure they will love to hear it. Thank you, Zack.” 

“Uhm, do you happen to know where I could find Trout? Or Tib, since the two are friends?” Zack asked, almost finishing his slice. 

“I believe they are playing together, but I’m not sure where did they go.” Babb gave an apologetic smile. “But they are coming here later, if you can wait.” 

“Unfortunately I can’t wait more, I still have many cats to invite. Would you mind telling Trout he is invited too for the party?” Zack finished his slice, putting his dirty plate in the sink. 

“Of course, I’ll let him know, don’t worry!” Babb picked another slice of the cake. “Do you want another slice?” 

“No, thank you, I need to run or I will not be able to finish everything in time, sorry!” Zack started to walk to the door. “I really need to go, thank you for everything!” 

“No problem, see you tomorrow!” 

As soon as Zack got out of the house, Noor landed by his side. “Hello, Zack, how are you?” 

“Ah, just the bird I was hoping to see!” Zack smiled. “I’m fine, what about you?“ 

“I’m well too. May I know what you want with me?” Noor smiled back, following Zack’s slow walk. 

“It’s Andy’s birthday this weekend and I’m planning a surprise party for her, of course Andy would love if you could go,” Zack said. 

“Of course, I would not miss it for anything,” Noor started. “But I believe this is not all you wanted to talk about with me?” 

“You are correct.” Zack gave a warm smile. “I need to invite some people to the party and I let Mari organizing the decorations alone. So I was hoping you could, when you got some free time, just go at my house and see if everything is alright? Mari was going to ask for Sam and Hawthorne’s help, so I’m a little worried about what they can do all alone.” 

“Ah, I understand. Don’t worry, I’ll check on them,” Noor decided fast. 

“Thank you, you are a wonderful friend, Noor,” Zack said. “Sorry for my lack of manners, but I need to go if I want to finish everything before Andy get home.” 

“No problem, see you later, Zack.” Noor took flight again and Zack stopped to check his list.  

He still needed to find Ygrai, but he had the feeling that if he could find eggs, he would find Ygrai. He crossed from the list ‘Babb and family’, Tammy, and Trout, writing notes close to Babb’s name, so he would remember that Mari would be the one to invite Sam and Hawthorne, as well as writing that Abbie would be the one to invite her pirate friends. He knew where everyone else lived, so he decided to go in everyone’s house and hope to run in Ygrai.