Hey guys. Sorry for not updating for a while although I had a long holiday. I had too much fun and couldn't start writing but I managed to finish this chapter for you guys. Hope you guys like it.

"Too big." I say to myself into the mirror as I try different smiles. "Play it cool." I take a deep breath and try another one. "Terrible! C'mon face, stop letting me down."

Today's Ethan and I's Birthday. Well, my birthday technically since he was born a minute after midnight tomorrow, thirteen years ago. Wow, I got to stop making dates sound complicated. We usually celebrate our birthday on the same day since it's easier and because New Years' Eve and New Years is already a big celebration. Mom usually takes a picture the minute we walk down the stairs and puts on our family birthday calendar. Our past few years have been a freak show.

I remember the past few photos that Ethan and I had taken, bed heads, yawns, missing front teeth. I then try a different smile. "I can't work with that. Show time." I say as I walk out of the bathroom.

Incase you haven't figured it out, birthdays are kinda a big thing in my family. Ooh, the pancake assembly line. Must be for my big day. The birthday kid always gets the biggest pancake. There it is! That one's mine.

I'm snapped out of my thoughts and in shock by Daphne putting syrup on that piece and eating it, and also by Lewie giving me a bowl of fiber cereal saying "last one down gets the fiber cereal, hope you don't have plans for the next 2 hours." before Beast pokes a fork into the cereal saying "and here, spoons were dirty."

What?! I can't believe it! They forgot my birthday. I mean, when you're the eldest kid, being overlooked is part of the deal because your parents have to pay more attention to the younger kids. But my birthday, that's a new low.

I sigh as I put the bowl on the table and start to eat, only to be interrupted by mom announcing something. "Alright, everybody shush! I have an special announcement to make. Today's a very important day." I smile because she must be announcing my birthday to everyone. "I'm dying my hair for New Years tomorrow." She says. "That's your special announcement?!" I ask her. "Special for me." She says. "A grown woman should not be coloring her grays with a magic marker."

Not gonna lie. I feel bad. Especially when I tell mom and dad that they forgot my birthday. They're gonna feel guilty, real guilty. Hang on! I can use that guilt to get something real good. Something money can't buy, but guilt can. I could get the best seat in the car, the sweet seat.

"The sweet seat." I accidentally say out loud as my twin, Ethan, who I thought would be the last person in the world to forget my birthday, passes in front of me. "Thanks, I thought these jeans were working for me too." He says as he walks to his seat.

Enjoy it now Rachel, cause that seat's gonna be mine. If no one remembers my birthday, I can basically ask for anything I want so why would I spend all my guilt points for a better seat in the car? Let me school you on life in a big family.

When it was just Ethan and I, we use to seat jump every time. We would take turns to get random rows in the car with Rock Paper Scissors. Rock being the front row, paper was middle and scissors was back. That time, Rachel was still too young to play so we let her sit in the front row so it was easier for mom to take care of her while Ethan and I played with the back rows. Then Georgie came along and she sat in the front row with Rachel until Lewie and Beast came along. Georgie decided that she wanted to play along in our game while Rachel still liked her front seat which she then shared with Lewie and Beast. Then Daphne followed and Rachel still wouldn't give up that seat so the twin boys moved into the middle row with me on the right end and Lewie on the left end so Beast was in between since he was always jumping around and putting him there would stop him from doing it so much. Georgie had gone to the back and you might be wondering why I'm not sitting with my twin. Well, it's because Georgie was sitting with them at first but they kept annoying her with their babbling so me, being the big sister I am, gave up my seat to Georgie. When Lewie and Beast were four, they started playing rough with each other in the car until we had to replace the car windows a few times so mom and dad decided that I should sit between them to stop them from fighting to much and I pretty much became a wall for them to play on. So that's how I got stuck in the worst seat in the car.

So instead of being stuck in combat seat forever, I could move up to the spot where you can feel the air vent and look out the window without a foot in your face. Don't ask why I'm wearing a tiara, I just am.

I want to sit like that. I want to look like that. I need to get those guilt points. And the only way to get them is if no one remembers my birthday.

One giant reminder I need to hide. 'The Birthday Box".

I quickly turn around after finding a space in my cupboard to hide it, only to find Georgie sitting on it. "I feel like today is something. She says, scaring me. "You ever have the feeling you've forgotten something and it's right at the tip of your brain?" She asks me. "Whenever I have that feeling, I forget about it and move onto something else." I tell her. "I just feel like it's right under my nose." She tells me.

It's actually right under her butt. All our family birthday traditions. With seven kids in the family, the things in that box got a ton of play. I remember all of the recordings of our first birthdays. They only recorded until Georgie's since it's pretty much always the same. The birthday crown in that box got split into half and held together by hinges so that both of us could use it because it was multicolored and mom and dad always thought it was cute when we both used it at the same time, although it got a little tight after a while but we thought it was kinda funny.

Fast forward to my cake last year, from my memory of course. Yep, a jenky crown, a lumpy candle and a plate that sounds like a dolphin crying. It's not pretty but it's my family's birthday tradition. And right now, it's standing between me and the sweet seat.

I then turn around to find the space in the cupboard again only to be once again interrupted by Georgie. "I thought it was static electricity day, which it's not. Wish someone told my hair." She says. "Maybe it's take a hike day. You should get on that." I suggest. "I hope it's not 'Thank the mailman day. I hate not giving Ernie a gift." She then says. "I'm mailing something but that seems rude." She then says as she gets up and leaves the room. I quickly pick up the box to out it into the cupboard before anyone else sees it.

"Hey Harley." I was interrupted by my twin brothers as they enter the room and I try to block them from seeing the half disguised box. "Hey guys, what's going on?" I ask them, trying to play it cool. "We got an offer for you." Beast said. "I'll do the talking. You just stand there and think about cotton candy." Lewie said. "I want to do talking." Beast complained. "Alright, go ahead." Lewie allowed. "Cotton candy!" Beast said, making me wonder what he was trying to actually say. Lewie had a smug look on his face. "Why did you have to say cotton candy?" Beast complained again. "Alright, you talk." Beast then said, giving in.

"It's about your latest invention," He said. "The Skate Kite." He pointed to it. "As you know, all vehicles must be tested before they hit the market." Of course I knew that. I give them an exasperated look, knowing what they now wanted. "We'd like to help you with that. Think of us as your personal crash test dummies." He said. "I don't need crash test dummies." I tell them. He scratches his head. "Then think of us as two kids who really want to ride your skate kite." He tries. "Scram monkeys." I tell the both of them as I feel the box slipping and they leave. I continue to stuff the box into the cupboard and finally manage to do it.

I then walk out of the room into Daphne's and she screams "Happy Birthday Harley!", shocking me. "How did you remember my birthday?!" I whisper ask her. "I didn't." She tells me in the same tone. "I remember when we're gonna eat cake." She says. "Shh." I then tell her. "I don't want anyone to know its my birthday." "I see." She says, running her chin like a detective. "Join me in my bed room." She points to her playhouse and we both enter.

"Since when is this your bedroom?" I ask her once we're seated. "Since I told mom I don't do trundle beds." She then said. "Look, I want to keep my birthday between you and me." I tell her. "No problem! Hit me with the ducats." She demanded. "What?!" I asked her. "Twenty bucks!" She said. I was shocked. "Abuela always sends us a twenty on our birthday." She says. "Cough it up." "Can you not take me down just this once?! Keeping this secret could be like a birthday gift to me." I then tell her. "It's Harley's birthday!" She announces out of her 'room', letting Ethan, who was next to it, know. "I would never give you a gift." She tells me. "Today's our birthday?" He asks, looking into the playhouse. I'm surprised he forgot. She extends her hand again. "I'm not paying, you already blabbed." I tell her. "Georgie!" She shouts. I press a twenty from my wallet into her hand. "Never mind." She shouts again as she admires the money.

I then quickly get out of the 'room' and drag Ethan into the one he shares with the boys. "Can't believe I forgot our birthday. How did I forget my birthday?" He tells me. "Everyone did. It's a good thing." I tell him. "Then you're going to love the present I didn't get you." He says. "Here's the thing. I need to get through the whole day without mom or dad remembering." I explain. "I don't blame you, that stuff's really old." He says. "Look, when mom and dad forget, they'll feel so guilty and I can ask for Rachel's seat in the car." I tell him. "The sweet seat! Genius use of guilt points." He says. "I wish I had though of it." "It won't work for you since we're twins. Your birthday is just tomorrow and they'll definitely remember if mine is today."

"So no one can remember it's my birthday." I finish. "Come on Harles, as soon as you give them time to stop and think, someone will remember." He tells me the obvious. "That's why I'm going to make sure no one has a second to stop and think. Now, mom's the big threat. Happy birthday to me, she's dying her hair." I remember the previous times she has tried and failed. "We all know how this goes." I remind him. "First, she does it wrong. Then she'll cry for a while. Then she'll eats a bag of chips. Then she'll cry some more because she ate a whole bag of chips." I tell him mom's usual process of dying her hair. "And then she'll go back to the store to get another box of dye, and chips. And try it all over again. We're talking at least until midnight, on New Years until this shame spiral ends." I finish. "Shame spiral, cool. Now I know what to call it. Also, sounds like a cool name for a band." He tells me after trying out how it sounds on his tongue. "Mom's covered, dad's at work. Now, we need to keep everyone else busy."

I leave his room and go downstairs to find Georgie in the laundry room. "Well, it wasn't thank the mailman day, but Ernie did enjoy the English coffee. Also, it's not English coffee day. Also, his name is Rick." She tells me of her morning. "You can stop figuring out because I looked it up and it is national high five day." I tell her. "That was last week." She reminded me. "Right." I said. "Of course. I meant international high five day. The opening ceremony was great. Everyone was like w o." I said trying to demonstrate high-fiving many people at the same time. "Really?" She asked and I nodded. She then high-fived me saying "konichiwa."

Georgie's busy, now to distract the boys.

I ran upstairs to get something before going back down and into the back yard where Beast was blocking balls shot by Lewie. "Skate Kite!" I announced and the boys dropped everything and ran over. "I feel bad I blew you off earlier, you're just the dummies I need to test this." I tell them. "You won't be disappointed." Lewie tells me before Beast says. "Cotton candy" again, making me wonder what he's thinking about. "Dang, it's all I can think about." He then says. Now I know what he thinks about and I release my hand from the skate kite, allowing them to use it. "My turn." Lewie says after Beast had a go and crashed. I then walked back upstairs, happily.

"I like that sweater Harley." Daphne says as I passed by her. "You're not getting my sweater." I tell her. "I already gave you money to keep my birthday a secret." Just then, Georgie walks upstairs saying "aloha". "You know what today is?" She asks Daphne. "International high-five day." Daphne looks at me. "Is it Harley, is it?" She asks. I then take off the sweater and hand it to Daphne.

I enter the bathroom where Rachel always is. "What are you doing today?" I ask her, already exhausted after being with Daphne. "Besides judging your t-shirt, going over to Cuff's." She tells me. "You should invite him here." I tell her. I didn't even know dad had allowed her to go over to his place.

I'm not worried about Rachel remembering my birthday, she's all about Rachel. She'll self-distract. But having Cuff here will keep dad nice and busy when he gets home from work.

"Cuff here?" She asks. "Crazy. You know dad can't stand him." She reminds me. "Ok, but going over to his place, not exactly a power move." I 'advise' her. "Don't you have something lame to build?" She asks sassily. "I'm just saying, Beyoncé always went over to Jay Z's house, it's a well known fact." I remind my little diva sister, using the celebrities that she's always obsessed with following. She picked up her phone and left the room.

I'm pretty sure I got into her head.

"The plan is working. Everyone is busy." I tell Ethan before pointing to my posterior. "Butt, get ready for the sweet seat." "You're good." He praises. "I'm in awe and a little bit scared." He then says before giving me a fist-bump.

I was then about to leave the kitchen when I found part of a leg sticking out from a cabinet and screamed. My mom, who was apparently hiding again, screamed too. "Mom? Are you hiding again?" I asked her as Ethan and I bent down to see her. "Of course I am. If you got seven kids, someone's going to ask you for something like right there you just asked me a question." She said. "I thought you were dying your hair." Ethan said. "And another." Mom said. "Well, I can see that this was gonna happen. Oh and I finished my hair and it went great. Turns out you shouldn't just throw away the directions." Mom continued. "If you were great at reading directions, I wouldn't have broken my tooth on your quiche." Ethan reminded her.

"Anyway, I have some unexpected downtime, which is good because I have this feeling all day like I'm forgetting something." She says and I panic. "Uh, uh, maybe it's a cleaning thing." I tell her. "Upstairs bathroom should definitely be on today's list." I remind her. "Nah, bumped that to next week." Mom says. "Didn't you bump that last week." Ethan reminded her. "This is why I was under the desk." She says. "Let me check my day planner." She moved to the counter to check her day planner. I panicked and swung my arm, knocking it out of her hands and into the sink. "Harley!" Mom scolded. "That was an accident." I tell her. "I had a muscle spasm. Oh there it goes again. You should probably go take me to see someone about that." I swing my arm a few more times. Mom clearly wasn't buying it. She walked over to the sink and pulled out the planner. "I'm guessing I'm punished." I say and mom tells me my punishment. I put on one of my hazmat suits and enter the bathroom.

I set out to get the sweet seat, this is not it.

I try to clean the toilet and get rid of as much gunk stuck inside as I can until Ethan steps inside. I lifted up my safety googles. "Mom's no dummy. She knew if she pushed us long enough, one of us will get punished and end up doing." Ethan said. "I'm down twenty bucks, a sweater and I have to do this." I pointed to the toilet. "If I don't get the sweet seat, this is going to be the worst birthday ever." I tell him.

Rachel then enters and starts spraying mom's hairspray all over. I put the goggles back over my eyes. "Now I need a hazmat suit." Ethan says before stepping into the shower and pulling the curtain. "I'm going shopping at the mall, you should too." Rachel said. I didn't know dad allowed Rachel to go shopping on her own but I guess with seven kids in the house, you lose track of where they are every minute. I look at my suit. "At least Daphne has a cute sweater on." She says. "I thought Cuff was coming here." I asked her. "Nah, his brother's got a new bike and he's allowed him to ride it around." Rachel said. "Fun, you should totally ask him to come over and give you a ride." I said mumbling that it's illegal to myself. "Hello? Helmet hair. No, thanks." The mini diva said. "Ok, but everyone knows that the first girl to ride on the back of the bike is his lady." I told her. "How do you think Beyoncé got Jay Z to put a ring on it?" I asked her.

Why am I doing this again? Oh right. To get the sweet seat. Am I that cruel to ask my little sister to get in trouble just to enjoy something for the rest of my life? Maybe but if you spend one day in my seat, you'd do it too.

"Yeah, I'm not taking advice from a person dressed like a trash can." She then said and left the room. "This is bad. I need Cuff here to keep dad busy." I tell Ethan as soon as he steps out from his hiding spot behind the shower curtain. "I want ice cream from a truck." Daphne demands as she marched into the bathroom. "Enough. I'm your oldest sister-" She cut me off by saying "You got ten minutes before I start talking." "She's mellowing. I remember when she only gave you five minutes." Ethan said, not comforting me at all. "My plan is unraveling. I can't take Daphne for ice cream and leave mom alone with all that free time." I told him.

"There's a place that has ice cream and keeps mom busy trying to wrangle her kids." Ethan reminded me. "The park." "Of course! Why didn't I think of that?" I asked him. "Well, you are under a lot of pressure avoiding your special day." Ethan told me. I nodded and we left the bathroom. I quickly gathered up the younger three, the Skate Kite, that luckily hasn't broken yet, and mom and we went into the car. We aren't allowed to switch seats so mom knows who's there and who's not.

As soon as we arrived at the park, I bought my little siblings a lot of ice cream so they would have a lot of energy. "Harley, why would you buy them that? I thought I said no more ice cream." Mom screamed at me. I'm getting into a lot of trouble today. "Oh, I thought you said more ice cream." I told her. "Just trying to help." She went to chase them. "Myself. I just love it when my plan comes together." I talk to myself before running towards the field in the park.

"I don't think I've ever been so tired." Mom said as we sat down on a bench. "You look tired. But in a few hours when we go home, you should probably go right to bed." I told her. We then heard some people singing happy birthday on a table a few meters away from where we were. "Hang on. What day is it today?" She asked but was thankfully distracted by Rachel riding on the back of the motorcycle driven illegally. "Rachel?!" Mom shouted. "Faster Cuff, faster." She shouted as she unraveled her arms around her boyfriend's torso to raise them. "Rachel! Get off that death machine!" Mom started to chase her but they kept ignoring her.

Mom and dad are probably going to be so mad at her for this, they're probably going to forget my next birthday. I know this is kind of mean but, give me a break. It's my birthday.

I continued to watch my mom chase the mini couple around the park. Later when the sun was setting, we went home. Luckily, Daphne didn't bother me anymore and we had dinner without any problems. Later, as Rachel got scolded by mom and dad for being so reckless, I cleaned our room with Georgie while talking.

"Thanks for helping Ethan keep my secret." I tell her after making sure that no one was near. "Sure, but I'm not sure why you would want everyone to forget your special day." Georgie asked me. "That's because you haven't had a six hour car ride with Beast using your head as a bongo drum." I explained. "No, I mean why you'd miss your birthday and the box? That's our family tradition. No of us has ever missed it." Georgie asked again. "A birthday is just a day. The Sweet Seat's forever." I reminded her. "But celebrating with the family isn't. You and Ethan are already thirteen. In a few years, you guys will be off to college and Rachel and I will follow in a few years but I support whatever you want and on behalf of the family, happy birthday." Georgie hugged me and we said goodnight before turning off the lights and going to bed early so that we wake up in time for the new year countdown.

"Darn you Georgie." I said and we both got up. "How is my baby sister so smart." She smiled. "Hey everyone. It's my birthday!" I shouted so the whole house could hear. Georgie and I quickly got out the birthday box from the cupboard and brought it downstairs. We assembled everything and took out a half of a cake that dad had brought back from work.

Ethan and I then sat at one end of the table and the others sang the birthday song. As soon as we blew the candle and cut the cake, we heard fireworks and ran outside. "Happy Birthday Harles." Ethan said. "Happy Birthday Ethan." I said to my twin and put our arms on each other's shoulders like we always have done since we were young. We then watched the fireworks. "Smile kids." Mom said as she snapped a photo of the two of us before the whole family.

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