Happy Birthday! (Peter)

[Avery Jacobs]

Avery wasn’t sure whether the boy would be slightly disturbed that she’d managed to figure out his birthday, but she figured it was well worth the try to show Peter that she did care as much as he showed her that he did. He was far too sweet and deserved something nice for his birthday. The girl smiled softly to herself, remembering the note she’d slipped into his mailbox the day before. Hopefully, he’d gotten it, though she couldn’t be sure. Avery noted mentally in her head, if he did come she’d give him her number so they could text each other.

Walking confidently into the cafeteria, a carefully taken care of poster under her arm and nicely decorated box in the other, Avery was happy to see there was not many people in the cafeteria. She was rather excited for this, and was actually quite eager to hopefully see a happy expression on Peter’s face. It had been a very long time since she had done something like this for anyone, and for some crazy reason, it felt very nice to be doing something nice for Peter. Of course, he had no idea of this. She’d made sure to keep it a good secret.

It hadn’t been too difficult to keep, seeing as she hadn’t seen the boy all through winter break as he’d gone back home to visit his family. Avery had certainly missed him waiting in her aunt's house due to the fact she didn't want to go home. She’d been a bit lonely for the first time as he aunt worked, but she’d reminded herself that he would be coming back soon. Based on the fact he hadn’t seen him in quite a few days, Avery was actually very excited to see his familiar sweet face. It seemed to be the main thing that comforted her in the academy and she enjoyed every moment she had with him.

Placing the box down on the table she’d found, Avery kept the poster on it as well and took a seat gracefully. In the box was a beautifully decorated large cupcake she’d gotten from the town and the poster was actually something she’d made herself. She’d done her try of painting, as she’d learnt from Leo how to do so long ago and used her skills to paint a picture of Peter’s horse, Thimble and a couple other that were in the pasture when she’d been that day and taken a picture. She’d done it over winter break while they were both away and was actually very proud of it. Avery only hoped he’d like it as well. Horses seemed to be the only thing she could actually paint very well. The brunette sat, bouncing her leg slightly with excitement as she waited for Peter to appear through the door way.

[Peter Holden]

Peter's birthday had always been a bit overlooked in the Holden household. Being right after the holiday made everyone a little exhausted when it came around. To be honest, Peter had never cared that much, and had just taken it as it was. His mother was a big holiday person, and loved hosting parties, so had it been any other time of year there probably would have been an enormous bash with tons of people, so Peter was actually rather grateful for not having to deal with that. Before he and Kate had left to come back to Blue Ridge after the holidays his mother had made a cake and they'd had a mini celebration for his birthday, which Peter had been satisfied with. He wasn't expecting anything at Blue Ridge, except for a present from Kate, who had decided to save it for his actually birthday, which she thought was very important.

When he'd gotten the note from Avery in his mailbox, he hadn't really expected that it would have anything to do with his birthday. He hadn't told her his birthday, and she had no reason to suspect that it was soon. More likely, she was just setting a time for them to see each other since they hadn't for a while. He was a little late getting to the cafeteria, but only a couple minutes, as he’d rushed.

Walking in, he scanned the room for a moment before finding Avery at one of the tables. He hurried over, a wide grin on his face. ”Hello Washington,” he greeted her, practically glowing. He was a bit like a happy puppy, the way he was thrilled to see her. He’d missed her over break, and had tried not to talk about her too much, as his parents would probably question the effect a girl would have on his grades and Kate would tease him to no end. He had talked to Kate about her a little bit of course, as the girl had been incredibly curious, but not so much, telling that that she’d meet Avery soon enough.

Sitting down across from her, his eyes focusing down on a poster sitting atop a box. Cocking his head to the side he studied it for a moment before looking up at Avery carefully, "That is really good," he told her, smiling, "That's Thimble, right?" He still didn't really know what was going on, yet he was still very happy, thrilled to see Avery and this beautiful poster. It hadn't really clicked yet, as he hadn't been paying very much attention to his birthday, as the only thing he'd really had planned was to go to dinner with Kate, who'd insisted they go.

[Avery Jacobs]

Avery was nearly bouncing in excitement at seeing her… What would she call him? Boyfriend? The word seemed quite official, and the girl wasn’t one for big tags. She was excited to see her Redcoat. That was what she would call him. He was certainly one of the best things she’d come to meet at BRRA, and for once she felt a twinge of gratitude to her grandparents for sending her here. Of course, the brunette was a bit curious as to how Peter influenced her so much she grew excited like she was twelve years old again. Avery shrugged, so what if she was excited? It wasn’t as if she cared what anyone else thought, right?

Looking up at the messy, but adorable mop of brown hair and deep, deep eyes, Avery felt her lips pull up into a smile. As he called her, her name, she grinned a bit more widely. It had been far, far too long since she’d gotten to see Peter and she had been extremely surprised at how much she’d missed him while at her old aunt’s house. She really hadn’t done much other than help decorate a Christmas tree and open a few presents that contained an array of scarves, socks and a new saddle for Dev. She only hoped it fit as it was a rather nice saddle.

“Hello Redcoat.” Avery motioned for him to come and sit. She had wanted to talk to him all over break and finally she could. Grinning as he noticed the poster, the brunette was very, very happy to hear him say that. Did that mean he liked it? She certainly hoped he did, for she’d worked on it quite hard and had even (much to her shame) poked into her old art notes that she’d taken from Leo’s teachings. Her brother had always wanted her to look into art as he believed she was good at it, though after everything, she’d pretended to be totally disinterested.

Avery nodded at his realization, now very, very happy he’d managed to recognize the horse. She couldn’t have done a too bad job then. The girl waited till he was settled across from her before she begun. “So, I managed to find out from a little bird that your birthday was today.” She grinned and pulled the poster off the box before pushing it toward him. “I decided to make something for you.” Avery pointed to Dev on the page and a few other horses. “That one is Dev, and the others, I don’t know the name, but you already figured which one was Thimble.” Avery went on before stopping quickly. “Oh yes, I also bought THIS for you.” Avery pushed the box toward the boy as well. The cupcake had a little frosting horse head on it, which she had thought was appropriate. The girl smiled her sweet smile to Peter. “Happy birthday Peter.”

OOC: If you haven't guessed already, click on "THIS" to see the adorable, horsey cupcake. xD

[Peter Holden]

Peter's holiday had been good, but he'd certainly missed Avery. He'd expected that going home would ease the homesickness and he'd never want to go back to Blue Ridge, but he'd found that he missed the school and Thimble, as well as Avery of course. The visit had simply reminded him of the reason he'd left, though if was still very pleasant. Now that Kate was back with him, he hoped the homesickness wouldn't be as bad as it had been. He only hoped that she wouldn't get it too badly. The girl wasn't sure to show it with other people around, but he knew that if it got to her it's certainly tear her apart.

The holiday had overall been composed of all of their traditions and parties to attend. The traditions had been nice to come home to, but the parties had been horrible as usual. They were full of his fathers colleagues and his mother's garden club friends, and the suit he'd used for the winter dance had gotten much more use than he'd have liked back on his vacation. Kate had been the only one keeping him from going absolutely bonkers, with her mocking of the guests and little tricks she played, making their mother go insane. His gifts had been nice enough, but Kate had been the only one who'd really nailed it, giving a restored vintage Polaroid he'd had his eye on forever. Sure, the film would be incredibly expensive, but the photos would be great. A homemade sweater from his mother was still stuffed in the bottom of his suitcase. It had been nice the first time she'd done it, but one could only use so many lumpy, offensively colored sweaters. He practically had a collection of them in his closet, with one for each year. He knew for a fact that Kate kept her set of them in rainbow order. They usually coordinated their wearing of them together, and made it a bit of a joke, though their mother would never know.

He grinned at her use of his nickname, remembering how it'd made him smile the same way when he'd seen it on the note in his mailbox. It was refreshing, seeing it for some reason. He bit the inside of his lip a bit at her mention of a little bird. He wondered how she'd really found out, though he didn't dwell on it too much. Had he not known better, her use of the term would have made him think it'd been Kate, even though it seemed impossible. When he didn't call her kitty it was always "bird girl" or "little bird." It'd originally been her ballet teacher who'd called her that, but the name had stuck since it fit so well.

Studying the picture closely as Avery pointed out the different horses, Peter's smile widened considerably. It was clear to anyone, but especially him that Avery had put a lot of time and work into it, and he was truly grateful. It felt odd, having someone he hadn't know for a long, long time put so much thought into something for him, but it was a nice sort of odd. He'd completely forgotten the box while looking at every aspect of the poster, and was surprised over again when she pushed it towards him. Pausing to look up at her before squeezing the sides of the box lightly to lift the top off, he smiled at her, thanks genuinely evident in his eyes.

After lifting the lid off, he laughed when he saw the cupcake. He couldn't imagine where she could have gotten such a cute cupcake, but it didn't really matter. Lifting it from the box so that both of them could admire it at the same time, he placed it carefully atop the box. "That, is amazing." he spoke matter-of-factly, pointing to the cupcake with its little horse head on top. Then, a bit sifter he spoke up again, Thank you so much Avery."

[Avery Jacobs]

Avery had never been big on holiday celebrations in the past. Of course, in her old life when her mother was living, things had been different, but the brunette had moved on and barely even remembered what that was like. At least she hoped not to remember it or else she would miss it. She wasn’t sure what Peter did other than the fact he went back to England, but she hoped he wouldn’t mind that she’d actually done something for his birthday. While Avery had currently been forgetting to celebrate her own birthday on that matter, she certainly didn’t forget the birthdays of those she cared about.

While Peter was something new and someone she’d just begun getting very close to, Avery was quite still prepared to give him something. The boy was a sign of hope and care for her, and the brunette didn’t want to lose anything like that now. Somewhat hopeful eyes peered up at the boy as he took a seat across from her. As she explained about the horses, Avery felt her eyes constantly go back to Peter’s face to see if he liked it or not. Judging by his growing smile, she felt as if she figured she’d scored.

Avery couldn’t hold back the excited little grin as Peter gave her somewhat of a surprised look when she pushed the box to him. She had expected him to be a bit surprised, though she had been kind of hoping on the happiness. Knowing Peter however, as little and as much as she did, she figured he might like the cupcake she’d picked out. It was something cute and sweet, without being smushy and girly like a heart. It was a nice thing to have something like horses in common between them or she might’ve gotten a huge headache over finding a cupcake for the boy.

The brunette followed the boy’s expression as he laughed once he saw the cupcake. That had been the reaction she’d be hoping for and as he pulled it out to set it on the box, Avery inspected it once more. She really had hit the jackpot in finding that little bakery in town. It hadn’t been far either, but she figured if you lived in a horse town, chances would bring you such an adorable thing. Avery chuckled as he commented on it, nodding. “I thought so too. I’m glad you like it.” As he went onto to thank her in that soft voice of his, she peeked at him somewhat bashful. “You’re welcome Redcoat.”

She was quite welcome and happy to see him happy, but now Avery wanted to just spend time with him. Relaxing a bit back into her chair, the brunette looked up at Peter. As usual, she started off with no small talk “England was fun?” It was something she was rather interested in as she’d never been to the country before. It sounded quite cold though compared to Kentucky or California.

[Peter Holden]

Peter was very pleased with the poster she made, and fully intended to find a way to display it in his room, whether his roommate liked it or not. He and the other boy didn't know each other very well, and they both just seemed to go about their business. It was clear from looking at it that Avery had employed what she'd learned in their art lesson, though it appeared as if she'd had some previous art training as well, from the look of things. He'd have to ask her about it sometime, though remembering her response last time he'd asked her about her experience with art, it may not be one of her favorite topics.

Looking down at the cupcake, he wasn't sure as to whether or not he should eat it. It looked as if someone had put a lot of work into it, and he couldn't imagine making something that he knew someone would eat. Pastry decorating was something that Kate was interested in, and she was pretty good at it, though few of her completed cupcakes had ever looked like this. It was, of course, meant to be eaten though, so he got up and excused himself, promising to be right back, and got a knife from the table with utensils in the cafeteria.

Once he'd returned, he looked up at her questioningly, "Would you like to share it? He hoped she would, since it was a large cupcake and she had gone to quite a bit of work to plan this celebration. "Chocolate is my favorite, by the way he noted, How did you guess?"

He was glad that Avery seemed to want to spend some time together talking, and seemed to be in no rush. Her question was reasonable of course, but he had to take a moment to come up with an answer that would give justice to the experience. "England was good. I was really glad to be home and see my family, and I got to see everything that I missed. I was glad that I got to go back and see everyone since it had been a while. But you know, after a couple days I began to remember why I'd wanted to leave in the first place. Sometimes you expect people to change and act differently when you don't see them often, but they don't, as far as I've seen." He stopped, realizing that he was getting negative, and tried to steer it back "But overall it was an enjoyable holiday, and I'm very glad I was able to go back. How was your break from Blue Ridge?" He sort of wished that he hadn't said so much, about people changing, but it was too late, and the truth anyways.