Days turn into weeks and routines form. Roxy comes to pick you up in the morning, you both go to school and have normal days. Roxy always attends chess club with you and everyone gets along, always just having casual fun. After school or chess club, Roxy drives you home.

You've had some fun poked at you by your brother, who's also tried to tell you your friends don't care about you but Roxy always has a way of calming you down and making you believe in yourself.

Speaking of Roxy, you were currently waiting for her on your front porch, shivering slightly. You had a thin long jacket wrapped around yourself as you clutched your books tightly to your chest. Idly, you look around the small yard and at the sky while waiting.

Finally, you hear the crackling of gravel as you see the bright pink bug pull into your driveway. You briskly walk over and slip in to the now familiar car.

"G'morning Calliope," Roxy smiles at you as she immediately starts to back out of the driveway. She knows now that you don't like to hang around longer than necessary so she always.

You're staring out of the window when you hear Roxy speak, "Don't you have a thicker jacket than that? It's getting kind of cold now." You look over at her, and her eyebrows are raised questioningly even though her eyes are trained on the road. You shrug, "eh, not really, but it's not like I hang around outside that much."

Roxy's mouth seems to form a tight line of disapproval but you quickly go back to staring out of the window.

When you arrive at the school, you both walk familiarly to your spot in the morning crowd. It's mostly you and Roxy, but sometimes a few of your other friends will swing by.

Kids fill in the space surrounding the two of you as you both chat lightly. You clench your books tightly as you try not to shiver as the cold sinks into your skin.

Finally the bell rings and you both start to walk, though you end up being separated from Roxy by the crowd. As you're walking and trying to catch up, you feel a rough hand push you and you stumble slightly before another hand knocks your books out of your hand. They fall to the ground loudly and get scattered, people either kicking them intentionally or accidentally.

You hear malicious laughter and look up to see your brother's friends. They keep cackling and pointing as they walk by and you finally see your brother among the group.

They finally disperse as you are left scrambling after your books. You hear the click of other feet coming towards you to see Roxy. "Sorry, you can go onto class," you mutter. Instead though, Roxy quickly helps you gather your books up handing them to you gently.

"You need a backpack, it'd make it a lot harder for them to do stupid shit like that," Roxy said as she followed your pace as you both set off for your first class.

"My father doesn't exactly get me things I need. He's all about my brother," you shrug. "Why?" Roxy inquires . "I'm not really sure. He's always preferred my brother, while I'm like the nuisance. Pretty sure they wouldn't care if I disappeared. Like for our birthday Caliborn is going to get a car, or at least that's what it seems like, while I'll probably just be ignored," you state. Though you had to admit to yourself that being ignored was much more preferred than being harassed.

"Wait, hold the galloping unicorns, when is your birthday?" Roxy turned on you, blurting out. Your eyes widen as register the sudden movement. "It's this Saturday."

"WHAT!? And I'm JUST now learning about this," came Roxy's exasperated reply as she began to walk again. You blush slightly, "I just didn't think it was that important."

Roxy cocks an eyebrow at you, reaching out and giving your hand a squeeze, "of course it's important."
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"You ready to go?" Roxy asks and she heaves her pink bedazzled backpack onto her shoulder, which she had informed you that her and her brother had done together. You had yet to meet Dirk but you were sure you would tonight unless he was at his boyfriend's

When she had heard it was your birthday she simply demanded you stay over for the weekend.

"Yeah," is all you say as you follow Roxy to her car. You are nervous but also really excited because you couldn't remember ever. You had packed an old tote bag and some wal-mart bags with the stuff you would need for the weekend and left them in her car this morning.

As you drive out, she goes the familiar route that would lead to your house and you stare at the turn to your road as you drive by. It felt weird but you were really glad you weren't going home this weekend, this would probably be one of the best birthday's ever.

You end up on this one lane road that has trees on both sides. The road dead ends to a clearing to this large house that had a unique shape to it. "Wow," you mutter to yourself staring wide-eyed.

Roxy parks the car and you slide out, grabbing your bags and following Roxy up the steps to her front door. "Okay so we can put your stuff in my room," she discusses casually as she looks for her house key. She unlocks the door and walks inside, holding it open for you.

As you walk in sound surrounds you with a giant wave of, "SURPRISE!" You stare around where a few people you don't know are and also where Nepeta, Equius and Aranea are. There are clusters of balloons and streamers spread throughout the large room and you stare around while Roxy just grins widely.

"Surprise!" she finally adds, and you feel a few hot tears welling up in the corners of your eyes. "You alright?" Roxy looks at you concerned. "Yeah," you sniffle, smiling and wipe at your eyes quickly, even though new tears come to replace them. "I've never actually had a proper party," you admit.

Roxy smiles, grabbing your hand and leading you over to the people you don't recognize. Well you think you recognize one of them but you are in slight denial currently.

"So Calliope, this is my mom, Rose, my bro Dirk, and his boyfriend Jake," she points at each one respectively. You feel anxious as soon as Roxy points out Rose. She is the author you admired after all and you were having a hard time not shaking with combined excitement and utter nervousness.

She smiles at you though and holds out her hand to shake yours, "pleasure to meet you, Roxy has been discussing you quite a bit," she smiles sweetly, her purple eyes squinting a bit with the smile. She was really just as lovely as you had imagined she would be.

The boy standing beside her holds up a hand "Hey there," he smirks, his other hand clasped in the other boy's, who didn't seem to be paying attention at all. "Don't mind him he's always off in his own world," Dirk waves off. "Okay," you chuckle and smile slightly. As your turning to walk to the people you do know, you see Dirk make a kissing face at Roxy when they think you can't see. Roxy blushes heavily and slaps Dirk on the shoulder. "Ow, what the hell Rox, I just got my tattoo there," he grumbles, stepping out of Roxy's reach before she can do anything else.

You both walk over to the other's. Nepeta pounces first, wrapping her tiny arms around you neck but almost dragging you down regardless. "Happy buurthay," she giggles as she steps back. Aranea smiles at you, "I'm glad we could have this celebration for you, you deserve it." Equius nods, his arms crossed as he stands by Nepeta's side. "Happy birthday," he curtly says, giving a tiny hint of a smile as well.

"Time for cake!" Roxy exclaims, turning you to lead you back to the table. Somehow a cake had appeared there with eighteen candles lit neatly and evenly throughout the cake. They all proceeded to sing, Roxy quite enthusiastically and out of tune, the birthday song for you and then cheered when you blew out the candles.

Rose passed out the cake and ice-cream, and even though you declined she simply smiled and handed you a fairly big piece. You smiled tightly back and went to sit by Roxy, staring at the cake. It did look really good but you didn't think you could eat this much. You picked at it lightly, eating a few bits of ice-cream here and there. You look up at one point in mid-bite and catch Rose looking at you thoughtfully. You blush heavily and look back down at your plate.

You blush at every present, and unwrap them delicately. You received a new sketchbook, a signed special edition of Rose's book series and a very nice chess set. Finally, the last two gifts were handed to you. "I picked these out, I hope you like them," Roxy blushes and looks off to the side a bit.

"I'm sure I will," you smile as you begin to slowly open the first one. After you get it unwrapped you open the box and pull out a warm, stylish pea-coat. You gaze at it for a moment, feeling the soft material. You'd never had this nice of a jacket.

After admiring it, you set it down carefully and begin opening the final gift. It ends up revealing a nice lime-green backpack. "You seem to like that color and I thought it wouldn't be easy to mix up with anyone else that way, plus it matches your eyes," Roxy mutters.

You smile, "Thanks, I love them both. I love all these gifts, this has been the best birthday ever." Well almost birthday since it was technically tomorrow but that wasn't a big deal.

Giving everyone hugs, you all finally settle down to watch a movie marathon with everyone arguing on what to watch. Rose brings over pizzas and everyone digs in, devouring quickly and leaving barely a stray strand of cheese as evidence there was ever pizza.

Finally, after several movies everyone seems ready to fall asleep and Aranea, Nepeta and Equius bid their farewell and leave.

Dirk and Jake slip up the stairs and you hear a distant clicking as a bedroom door is shut.

"Here, I'll show you my room," Roxy states. You follow her as she helps you get your things. She opens one of the closed doors to a large open room. Curtains were drawn over windows and the room had a few wizard dolls and a desk with her computer but otherwise was actually very tidy. There is a very nice looking T.V. hanging in one corner at a convenient angle from the bed. She sets what she has of yours down, so you follow suit, putting the rest beside it.

She goes to sit down on her bed and pats the area beside her, "you have a very nice place," you murmur. Roxy rubs the back of her head, "aah, yeah. My parents saved up quite a bit before we were born," she half laughs.

Roxy turns and grabs the remote for the television and turns it on. You both sit their idly for a few minutes watching some random late night show.

"So," Roxy says, breaking the verbal silence. "did you have fun?" She inquires, looking at you with her bright pink eyes.

"Oh yes, loads," you exclaim happily. She grins at you, "Good. So uh…I have another question…" she trails off, looking at her lap. You look over at her and she's biting at her lower lip. "What is it?" you ask, your stomach starting to plummet.

Oh no, what did you do wrong?

"So uh," she mumbles, "I've been thinking….I really, really care for you…like a lot and uh. I was just wondering if uhm. You would like to go out," she mutters the last part and you have to strain your ears to catch it all. Where the plummeting feeling was, now lays a nervous feeling. Wait what?

"Wait…you mean like..dates..are you asking me out?" You ask, stunned. "Well…yeah, I mean only if you want…" she mutters into silence again. It takes a moment for you to get your train of thought back but you finally do. "Yeah, that'd be great. I'd love that," you finally reply. She looks up at you and has a relieved look, flashing a huge smile.

She puts a hand on your face, "May I?" she ask, looking at your lips and pack up at your eyes. You feel your mouth go dry and you try to swallow, but nod nonetheless.

Roxy closes her eyes and leans in, pressing her lips against yours gently. You feel butterflies take off in your stomach as you let your eyes slide closed as well. She raises a hand up your back and presses you closer tenderly, as her other hand clasp one of yours.

You both stay like that for a few minutes before Roxy finally breaks away, a content look shining on her face. She leans over and flips off a light switch.

"Come on, we should probably sleep," Roxy says, pulling you slowly down with her. You both get covered up and finally Roxy turns off the television, flooding the room with silence.

"Goodnight," she murmurs happily. A bit reluctantly at first, you nuzzle up closer to her, reveling in the warmth and closeness. "Goodnight," you sigh back, content.

You couldn't have been happier with how today turned out. Especially with the way your first kiss went.

(Sorry guys about the long wait. Thanks for being patient with me and I'm really sorry. I've been busy over the break and school was keeping me before that. I have an actual slight break this last week of Christmas break and then I'll be back to school.

Sorry again guys, I hope you enjoy this chapter)