Chapter Twenty-Three: An Unforgettable Birthday Party...

 Narrated by Erytheia Masterson

Winter had now arrived, and it also happened to be less than a week until my birthday (and Xanthe's, of course). 

"Wow, I can't believe we're leaving school soon," I said. 

"I know, it feels crazy! I still remember my first day at primary," Xanthe replied. "Back then it seemed like ages until we'd finish."
"It did," I agreed. "Now it's here."

I had been meaning to practise my violin, as I knew that being good at an instrument could help me earn a scholarship towards university. Any chance of a peaceful practice session, however, was marred by hearing a scream and the whoosh of flames...

"What on Earth happened?" I yelled, hurrying downstairs.

"It was me," Xanthe admitted. "I tried using Repairio to fix the stereo, but it went wrong..."

"Never mind," Dad said. "It happens to all of us."

Then, out of nowhere, a sprinkler appeared, extinguishing the fire. 

Phew!

Mum had said that the Chillio spell could extinguish fires, so I purchased the tome online through the Occult Emporium. Unfortunately, I hadn't realised that it was for Acolyte-level Spellcasters, and I was still just a Neophyte; the book would be too advanced for me. Therefore, I decided to practise my casting. Heidi decided to sit with me, even though she was bound as Dad's familiar rather than mine and so wouldn't be able to help me. It was nice to have her around, anyway.

Winterfest was the following day, and I sent a text to Alexander.

Happy Winterfest! Hope you're having a lovely day xx

It's going well thank you x he messaged back. How are you? Heard you had a fire yesterday!

Yeah, we did! Just a spell gone wrong. Thankfully no-one was hurt.

That's good. Maybe I'll come and visit later x

As it turned out, at around 7:45 that evening, Alexander did arrive. We had fun telling each other terrible Winterfest jokes before he went to dance to some seasonal tunes playing on our newly-fixed stereo. 

Coco was hanging around in the hallway, and I noticed she seemed a little sad.

"Hey, what's the matter?" I asked. "I know, I'll play with you!"

I grabbed a laser pointer and switched it on, grinning as Coco chased the image of a pawprint. She and Heidi never got bored with the pointer; they always thought they could catch it.

Instead of all of us gathering round the tree to open our presents, we tended to open our gifts in our own time, whenever we wanted. 

"So, what did you get?" I asked Xanthe.

"I got a freaking lump of coal!" she exclaimed. "What did I do to deserve one of those??"

"Wow, that's harsh," I agreed. "I thought my gift of a model pile of folded laundry was weird, but at least we can use it as décor."

"That is a pretty rubbish gift," Alexander said. "Anyway, who's excited about going off to university?"
"Me!" Xanthe grinned. "We're all going to be living together, right?"
"Yep," I smiled back. "I can't wait!"

Soon, it was New Year's Eve, and time for the Midnight Countdown. It was always fun to be surrounded by my family, ringing in the New Year together. I'd miss everyone when I moved to Britechester, but it would also be fun living with Alexander and Xanthe. 

***

Monday arrived... my last day of school, ever. It was an odd day - fun games interspersed with normal lessons. Xanthe and I spent some time going round school getting signatures and messages from people on special school-branded white t-shirts we'd been given. Even Artemis and Apollo wrote some silly messages, even though we were going to be seeing them again. 

That evening, I threw a joint birthday for Xanthe and me. As well as Alexander, Helen, Evie, Nani and Malia, I also invited Kayden, who was one of Apollo's friends, mainly to bump up the number of guys there.

***

The evening was going well, when I suddenly had an ominous feeling. I headed outside to where the pool was, and was absolutely horrified to see Kayden floating face down in the pool...

"Oh, SHIT!" I yelled. "Fuck! Oh my God, I hope one of my parents knows the Dedeathify spell..."

Sure enough, Dad came to the rescue. 

"I have to cast Necrocall first, to summon his ghost," he explained. Twirling his arms, he yelled "NECROCALL!"

Not long after, Kayden's ghost appeared from the urn.

And then...

"DAD!" I screamed, seeing a pale ghost with the appearance of my dad. "What the hell?"
"It's fine," he said reassuringly. "I'm not really dead. I tried to use Dedeathify on Kayden, but it went wrong. Please don't worry, Erytheia, this is only temporary. I'll be back to normal in a few hours."

Of course, it was still a birthday party, and there were candles waiting to be blown out. After aging up, I received a message from school telling me that I was to graduate as the class valedictorian. I smiled; it was a little bit of good news in an absolutely crazy evening.

"Oh, Alexander," I sighed, holding his hands. "This party's turning out terribly."
"It really isn't," he smiled gently. "What happened to Kayden isn't your fault. And your dad's not really dead, is he?"
"No," I sniffed. "Ugh, people will be talking about this for ages."

"Well, maybe. But we'll make sure they won't say anything bad. It was a complete accident."

"You're right," I smiled. "Let's hope Dad manages to make the Dedeathify spell work next time."

Luckily, the next morning, Dad was completely back to normal, which was a huge relief.

"I'm alright again," he grinned. "Well, now I've got two adult children... blimey, how time does fly. I hope you two have a good time at university, I know you'll do really well."
"Aww, thanks Dad," Xanthe smiled. "It'll be weird not living here. You can come and visit us whenever you like."
"I will, and so will your mother," Dad replied. "Have a great time."

***

BONUS: Kayden's ghost was still hanging around the morning after the party. Perhaps the first attempt really had been bad luck, but anyway, I got Peter to cast Dedeathify on Kayden and it worked! I don't know if it made any difference, but I had Peter summon Heidi as his familiar. He even got a milestone saying he'd resurrected a Sim!