It has been a year since John's birth, which means he's going to experience his first ever celebration of his birthday!
He spent the day with his parents and siblings that have yet to move out. There is no need to list all of them, as they will not be important to know later. However, there are a few you must know now before you can read the rest of the story.
Mom and Dad are named Sarah and Joseph, respectively. They are 180 years old, thanks to the fact that they are cultivators, and are currently sitting down at the table with toddler John. Mom is bouncing her baby boy on her knee, which causes John to coo and babble in delight. Dad is crouching right beside them and letting John grab and hold onto his long beard. "Ow!"s can be heard everytime John pulls, which also causes him to laugh.
Here's a secret though, Dad doesn't feel a thing for what he's going through. Thanks to his training as a corn farmer from his own dad, his body is much stronger and tougher than you would expect. He's simply allowing John to pull his beard because he likes the smile on John's face.
Of course, Mom is, again, pregnant. You don't have over 120 children without having one every year. She trained her body to be able to protect any children she has in the womb and out of it. She may seem weak now, but don't mess with her children.
At the table, we have the eldest sibling currently living in the house, Ethan Smith, at 21 years-old. He's been living here for the past few years because he has yet to advance past the Salvation stage into the Sanctification stage. That will be explained later, but, for now, just know that Ethan is considered a 'bum' by society at large, but his parents don't mind one bit. The parents do put him to work in their fields and house, though. Just because he was living here didn't mean he couldn't work.
Currently, he was bringing in a baby safe cake that had a single candle on top. "Who's ready to blow out the candle?" He asked in that baby tone of voice at little John Smith. John stopped pulling on his dad's beard and focused entirely the bright candle in front of him.
Next, we have Megan Smith, a 12-year-old girl who's been studying hard in school, but has been messing with fireworks without her parents' knowledge. Today, though, she has decided to reveal her 'talent' the best way she could think of.
Put a small firecracker in the cake and blow it up in Ethan's face!
Which is precisely what she did. When he wasn't looking, Megan put one in and lit the fuse right as he was passing by her. The fuse quickly went into the cake, where it proceeded to go out because the cake's liquid made the fuse too wet. Megan didn't know this, but still rubbed her hands together under the table. She waited for something that would never come.
That was too bad, because she put something on it that would haunt her later.
Ethan had no idea about this firecracker, and just set the cake in front of the parents and John. "Happy Birthday, John!" The eldest told the current youngest.
One other brother perked his head up, "Who? Me?" Ethan rolled his eyes. "N-" He was interrupted by Other John. "I don't think it's my birthday. It's Little J's birthday, Ethan." A Brother beside Big John snickered. Ethan just sighed and turned back to Little John.
"Come on, everyone!" Shouted Dad, "Let's go ahead and sing!" Everyone readied themselves and sang "Happy Birthday" to the birthday boy.
Megan did so as well, but she had her hands on her ears, waiting for the pop! She was confused on why it hasn't happened yet.
At the end of the song, John's 4-year-old sister came up behind him. She was prompted by Dad to blow out the candles for John while his little baby head wasn't looking, which she promptly did. The family cheered in clebration as baby John smiled and smacked his hands on the table as he watched the flame go out so suddenly.
The father took hold of Baby john and let the mother take the big knife to cut the gigantic cake so everyone could have a slice. The first slice, and the smallest, was given directly to baby John. Baby John ignored the utensils by his side completely and just picked up handfuls of cake to shove into his mouth.
Megan, unfortunately, wasn't nearly as joyful.
Every cut of the cake just caused her to get more and more tense as she waited for her parents to realize that a firecracker was put in it. However, she realized she could do something to get out of this. She slowly separated herself from the rest of the family, went around a corner of the house, and booked it to hide at a neighbor's house. She was friends with their daughter, so they'll definitely let her hide there while the aftermath blows over.
Soon after she got out of sight and booked it, the mother found the peculiar object within when she hit it. "Hmmm?" she hummed to herself. As she pulled out the cake-covered firecracker, she got mad once she recognized it. "Who did this?!" She yelled out at the children. Samantha, having just learned to read, saw what was legible on the cake-covered firecracker from below and giggled out, "Ethan!"
Ethan paled and shook both his head and hands in front of himself. "What, no!" He said, but Mom was having none of it. She pulled his ear and started lambasting him with lectures and nagging.
"How could you do this?!"
"This is John's first birthday!"
"This is how you show your gratefulness in this household?!"
While Ethan was trying to tell her he didn't do it, Samantha picked up the cake covered firecracker and licked off all of the frosting and cake bits on it. However, she stopped and giggled when she saw another name she recognized on it. "Megan!" She declared in delight as she hugged the explosive to herself.
Mom heard this, and stopped what she was doing when she realized that she left the explosive on the table when she got up to lecture Ethan. "Sweetie! No, don't hold on to that." She took it away from her daughter. "It's dangerous to- Huh?" She looked down at the now legible writing on the casing.
"To Ethan, hope you day goes explosively! Love, Megan."
Mom's anger began boiling inside of her. Her face began to get red, and her teeth gnashed against each other. Finally, she could no longer hold it in and screamed out.
"MEGAN!" Said daughter could hear her over a mile away, and saw the nearby flock of birds scrambling to fly away.
Little John, however, was just spending his birthday eating cake, and giving some of his cake to Dad by trying to smush handfuls of cake into his mouth. Dad was having a good time, unlike Mom. Still, he could see that Megan would need to be punished at a later time.
For now, he just helped on giving Little John the best first birthday he could give his son.
AN: Forgot to tell you guys, but I do spend Sundays with my Dad, so I won't be posting a chapter tomorrow, but you will see the next chapter Monday. I already know the title, too. "An Average Joe's First Friend"