The Cheerleader And The Nerd

Chapter 2

 “Riley, you better not make me come up there!” I sighed and ran out the door, towards the stairs where Kat stood with her hands on her hips, tapping her foot.

“Why are you yelling, Kat?” I asked her, once I was down the stairs. She immediately pulled me over to the living room, where Cyn, Sarah and Christopher sat. Christopher was my dad’s personal assistant, and acted like the big brother I never had. He even let Sarah pamper him with her motherly love. He was a real sweetheart. Growing up, he’d been there for me a lot, and had bailed me out of countless situations.

 He was quite young, and had a good face to look at. He had light cinnamon eyes and dirty blonde hair that was cropped short, and a crooked nose that had been broken at least once. They all smiled when I came in, and they all had gifts in their hands.

But the one thing that caught my eye was the cake on the coffee table. It had plain white frosting, with the letters ‘Happy Birthday Riley!’ carved in it. It had a single candle in it, and to anyone else, it must have looked like an ordinary cake. But it was my favorite! It was ritual, I’d only ever have this cake on my birthdays, the rest of the 364 days were carrot cake free.

I knelt down to the coffee table, so I came face to face with the cake. Everyone stood around me, and waited. I closed my eyes, and made a wish.

I opened my eyes and blew the candles, and everyone clapped, and sung happy birthday to me. I took the cake cutter, and cut a large piece of the cake, and everyone came and fed me a slice.

“Happy Birthday RJ” said Chris, before lifting me up in the air, and spinning me around. I felt giddy, as if I was an 8 year old again. I shrieked and told him to put me down but we both knew I was secretly enjoying myself. When he put me down, I hugged him really tight.

“Thanks C” It was our thing. We only ever called each other by our initial names. I was RJ for Riley Jean and he was C for Christopher, since I didn’t know his middle name and he wouldn’t tell me.

“Anything for you RJ” he said, ruffling my hair. I smiled tearfully at him, and he squeezed my hand comfortingly. Just that minute, dad walked in. Everyone’s head snapped to him. He was busy yelling at someone on his phone and didn’t see us, and just headed upstairs to the east wing where his room was located.

 I was on the brink of tears now. He couldn’t see his daughter in the other room? He didn’t even remember my birthday? I mean I didn’t want a new car or something but just a ‘Happy birthday Riley’ and a hug would have been nice.

Kat must have sensed my change in mood, because then she exclaimed loudly,

“Time for your gifts! Okay so who wants to go first? Me? Yay!” she decided, and then looked at me with eager eyes.

“We’re going to Vegas for the weekend!” she suddenly yelled. Vegas? Was she serious? She knew I’ve always wanted to go to Las Vegas!

“Vegas? Oh my god! Kat that’s amazing!” I yelled with her, both of us jumping up and down. After a few more minutes of jumping, we both fell on the floor, laughing hysterically.

“Who’s going to Vegas?” asked a gruff voice. I turned my head to see who it was, and stood quickly, fixing my clothes.

“Umm, Kat and I are going to Vegas for the weekend” I said quietly. Dad simply nodded before turning on his heel and going upstairs again. After that everyone else gave me their gifts. Cyn had got me a couple of CD’s, a few shirts and a keychain that had a picture of me and her. Sarah had got me 2 summer dresses; a beige one and a light blue one, as well as some accessories. C got me 2 new covers for my laptop, the new red and light violet one. I hugged and thanked them all, before me and Kat ran upstairs to my room.