Surprise
Balloons. Everywhere you looked were balloons. Endless balloons. Endless green, purple, orange, red and yellow balloons.
Apparently the only acceptable way to celebrate the momentous leap from six years old to seven years old was with a shit ton of balloons.
“Where’s our floor?” Venom asked, staring at the colorful sea of balloons.
“Where’s our son?” Eddie asked slightly unnerved.
This joyous occasion of Agony, Phage, Lasher and Scream’s birthday just happened to coincide with Sleeper becoming much more mobile. He couldn’t walk yet but he did take four whole steps all by himself yesterday before falling back into a skillful crawl. Needless to say he was very excited and motivated to traverse the suddenly much wider world.
They had sent Agony, Phage, Lasher and Scream out of the house with Dan and Annie and they sent Carnage along too so the younger kids wouldn’t get suspicious. Only Sleeper remained at home while Eddie, Venom, Flash, Andi and Felicia got everything ready for the surprise party. Eddie’s sister Mary and her husband Scott were due from the airport soon and the rest of the guests would surely follow and they were nowhere near ready.
Andi and Felicia were at least trying though, the girls were hanging streamers all over the place to offset the wealth of balloons. Flash was supposed to be frosting the cake but he was apparently having too much fun rolling his chair backwards down the hall as Sleeper crawled after him and giggled manically in his effort to catch his uncle. Sleeper would crawl a while and then shakily stand up and tottle a step or two before falling back into a frantic crawl. A pattern of locomotion that of course meant he’d never catch up to Flash but Flash would roll backwards and then roll forwards a little making Sleeper squeal and giggle and become even more determined.
Anne was texting Eddie updates to keep them all appraised so the surprise part would go off without a hitch (in theory). According to the texts, Carnage was in a sullen mood about their younger siblings turning seven because it meant they’d all be the same age until Carnage turns eight in two more months. They’d tried having this discussion with Carnage every year since they first brought the younger children home- it didn’t matter to Carnage that they were still definitely the oldest because for two agonizing months of the year they were all the same number of years old.
As Flash continued to be of little help Eddie and Venom took his place on cake duty. Flash made it and the bottom was a little black but it needed to be frosted. Not a particularly difficult task except Venom was eating the frosting more than they were decorating with it.
“V, there’s not going to be any left for the cake.” Eddie grumbled as Venom force fed him another spoonful of purple sugar paste.
As they put the last gasp touches on the birthday cake there was a swift knock at the front door.
Andi opened the door to let Mary and Scott in and they too looked a little perplexed at the state of the house.
“The party is today, right?” Mary asked only half kidding.
“Come on, it's not that bad.” Eddie retorted back.
Actually though, it was pretty much that bad. Their food plans had gone out the window because a briefly unattended grill resulted in all the food being burnt to the point that only Venom would eat it. The cake was a mess, the gifts were wrapped in an enormous rush and were embarrassingly sloppy as they sat in a teetering, crooked pile, Eddie’s ambitious idea to make gift bags for the guests had proven too ambitious when he realized just how many people he invited.
Speaking of which.
Guests started arriving and every one of the kids in Agony, Lasher, Phage and Scream’s first grade class was coming for the party which spelled certain disaster. The aforementioned guests of honor would arrive at any minute and suddenly Eddie wanted to cry. He and Venom just wanted this to be perfect, they finally made enough money between their two jobs to throw a great birthday party but it was turning into a catastrophy and the stupid thing hasn’t even started yet.
Eddie was desperately trying to save the ‘Happy Birthday’ banner which only had room for Agony and Scream’s names by cramming Phage and Lasher’s names onto the end in tiny letters. As he began to realize that no banner was definitely better than a banner that made it look like you liked two of your kids more than the other two- there was a startling, loud pop behind him followed by two more just like it.
They turned around just in time to see Sleeper’s eyes well up before he began to wail.
“What’s wrong?” Mary came in from the other room looking worried.
“Its okay. He just found out that claws and balloons don’t always mix.” Eddie explained, scooping Sleeper up.
“Mamaaaa!” Sleeper bawled in his arms.
“That noise stung him but he will be okay.”
“Aw, poor little guy.” Mary frowned and took him from Eddie.
As his parents, Eddie and Venom could easily tell that Sleeper was crying a little harder than usual because his aunt was there and he wanted her attention. Their youngest was growing craftier by the day.
Eddie continued to slide into the depths of party planning madness and buckle under the crushing weight of their own fantasy for this event. He was trying really hard not to tear up about the fact that he just got a phone call that the Princess Elsa actress they’d gotten for Scream and Agony would no longer be making it.
Eddie was instantly rattled by a knock at the front door that heralded the arrival of the first guests. One by one their house was flooded with first graders and their own extended family members and friends. His phone buzzed in his pocket and it was Anne- they were out of time. No more chances to save this disaster of a children’s birthday party. Their kids deserve so much better than this and Eddie just hoped the kids could forgive him.
The guests all took their hiding spots as Anne’s car pulled into the driveway and Venom gave Sleeper a pacifier to make sure everyone was quiet.
The lock clicked, the handle turned and the front door was nonchalantly pushed open to reveal a dark and empty house. Eddie crouched behind the couch and listened carefully for the kids to be close enough.
“Why are all the lights turned off?” Dan baited them.
“Because Dad is probably taking a nap.” Phage incriminated Eddie.
The sharp clicking of Anne’s heels suddenly softened when she stepped onto the carpeting of the living room and that was their cue.
“SURPRISE!!” Everyone yelled and jumped out, throwing handfuls of confetti.
Agony, Scream, Lasher and Phage all jolted and yelped in surprise. Suddenly clinging to Anne’s legs before they realized that there was not an immediate danger. It started to dawn on their faces that this was a surprise party and not only that but a surprise party for them. As this important realization hit them they started screaming and jumping up and down and hugging their equally excited friends from class.
“Are those for us?!” Lasher pointed at the pile of poorly wrapped gifts, totally unbothered by their shoddy appearance.
“Of course! Who else?” Flash laughed.
There was more knocking at the door so Eddie got up to answer it expecting another tiny guest but instead he was met with a delivery man with a truly excessive number of pizzas.
“The food situation couldn't be salvaged so I took the liberty, hope you don’t mind.” Mary smirked at him.
They carried the pizzas into the kitchen where Felicia was decorating a cake that was utterly immaculate and seemingly came out of nowhere.
“How did you-?”
“You had pancake mix and a tall stack of pancakes is virtually indistinguishable from a birthday cake. I’m just decorating it.” She explained.
“Felicia that cake is gorgeous.” Mary was as shocked as Eddie and Venom.
“I’m much better at improv and aesthetics than my dear Flash. Now shoo.” She waved her hand.
Everything just got better from there, everyone loved the pizza, the kids lost their minds over every last one of their presents and Anne had prepared and brought a host of party games that everyone had a blast playing.
As the kids playfully pushed each other out of the way to blow out the candles on their (pan)cake Eddie could feel himself finally relax. The women in his life really saved the day and they’d have to find a way to thank them.