Everything had become so dull lately. Everyone had fallen into their routines. Melody craved excitement. She had a plan. Melody saw Trish come back home from work and she knew she had a lot of time to act. She started to place colorful post-its in the brunette’s car until it was fully covered in bright colored paper. With only one with her signature for Trish to know who it was.
Trish stepped out into the morning sun, digging through her purse looking for her keys. She’d left the studio at a reasonable time the day before because she’d gotten into a creative rut and needed to take a step back from her current painting. Today she didn’t feel much better about it but knew if she didn’t go stare at that canvas some more, it wouldn’t go anywhere. Her parking spot wasn’t too far from the entrance to the building, a fact that either had to do with the board thinking she was attractive or the board being afraid of Hades or both, so she didn’t go far before she got to her car. That being said, she saw the colorful papers long before she’d gotten to it, she was anticipating something - in fact, she knew the night before that something was happening but let the girl get away with her prank. The security on the building and the parking lot were high but when she got the call that someone was ‘vandalizing’ her car, she told security to leave it be and was simply curious what Mel was up to but not looking outside so she’d still have the element of suspense.
Pulling out her phone, she took a picture of her car impressed at the amount of effort Mel had put in but wasn’t really surprised. Mel never went halfway with anything which was one of her best features. She sent the picture to Mel along with the text, “good color scheme, I’m impressed. Where on earth did you find so many post-its? I didn’t know they came in that dark of a blue.”
Everything had become so dull lately. Everyone had fallen into their routines. Melody craved excitement. She had a plan. Not wanting to risk any jail time again, she decided to play it safe and not include Flora in her pranking extravaganza. She had no sense of humor. She simply left the blond a little box, from their bakery with her signature in the little card, at her door and rang the doorbell before she ran away.
Flora opened her front door holding Richard in her arms to keep him from running out again and paused - no one was there but she could have sworn she’d heard footsteps. Looking down the hall she tried to see if maybe a neighbor had received a visitor instead though she saw nothing. She stepped back and moved to close the door when she saw the familiar box. Flora smiled, picking up the package from her sister’s bakery and brought it inside to inspect, the familiar scent of her favorite vegan lemon bars wafting lightly up from the box. She placed Richard on his pillow before returning to the box, ready to dig into the treats when she noticed the card. She took a bite as she opened the card and instantly stopped chewing, the color leaving her face. In one quick movement, she dove towards her sink and spit out the food.
There’s no telling what that girl had done to the food, Flora thought severely as she glared at her favorite treats.
They had been prepping for this day months in advance. The first month was figuring out what to give her, the second how to hide it from her. Luckily it all went according to plan. They bought several empty cardboard boxes. Some they were going to hide throughout the house and others they would hide at Melody’s friends’ houses. Every so often they would hear a shout from her, that’s when they knew she found one of the trick boxes. Luckily for them the girl went to bed early because of her job. So they took this opportunity to set up her gift. They asked the neighbor to hide the boxes for the day, luckily Dash had the charm to convince a strange to do such a thing. They retrieved it from the man and went back to their house. They placed the small envelope in a small box, and then put that small box in a bigger one and so on. When they were finished the box reached about Dash’s waist. The boys wrapped the box in a colorful, festive paper, and put a big red bow on top of the box. The only thing missing was the birthday girl.
When the clock struck midnight they jumped in her room and started blowing horns and throwing confetti’s at her while singing Happy Birthday. “Oh my god!” She said, tears were starting to well up in her eyes “This isn’t from happiness this is because I’m mad at you too for waking me up.” She got up from her bed and hugged the two boys tightly. “Here you go.” Dash gently put a Birthday cone hat on Melody. She smiled at him and squeezed his cheeks. “Come see your present.” Tip grabbed Melody’s arm and lead her to the living room. Melody’s chin dropped and a loud gasp exited her mouth. “Oh my god!” She managed to say. “What ?!” Melody hugged the two guys one more time before making her way to unwrap her giant gift.
Melody opened the first box, rolled her eyes at them “Are you serious ?” She tried to hide her smile but couldn’t do it. The girl spent 10 minutes opening up boxes only to find more boxes inside them. When she reached the last one she could only see an envelope “Are you fucking kidding me?” The waved the envelope in the air “You gave me a gift certificate to Target ?” Tip made a face “Jesus, no need to be such a diva.” Melody sighed at him and opened the envelope only two find two annual passes to Disney World. “Oh my god!” she yelled out “Oh my god!” Melody was so surprised she couldn’t even get the right words out. “We got two so you always have company.” Dash smiled at the girl “Yeah, you can bring us, or that pixie of yours.” Tip attempted to feign an upset expression. Melody hugged the two boys at the same time, one arm around each of them, she hugged them so tightly the trio fell on the floor. Melody had tears streaming down her face “I love you guys so much.” She managed to say. “You guys are my family.” Mel cried out before hugging them one more time.
Fauna spent most of the early morning prepping doughnuts and croissants for the morning rush. When the happy brunette walked in for work, Fauna greeted her with a smile.
Flora stared in shock - and horror - at the brunette across the path. For once, she didn't feel like her skin was going to melt off by going outside and she decided to get some much needed fresh air but was sorely disappointed to see her least favorite person at the very same park. And what made it worse was that she had a baby. Before she could restrain herself, a loud scoff left the back of her throat as she considered the horror that was that vermin procreating. Since she'd already drawn attention to herself, she spoke, "how on earth were you allowed to have a child? I believe that's probably some sort of a crime."
The phone rang loudly on the nightstand, why did i put this obnoxious ringtone ? the boy thought, his hand searched the nightstand while he faced the other way. “Hello ?” Tip managed to say. “ Is this T-Tip-Tippo… Tippo Doren I’m talking to ?” A woman’s voice asked on the other line. He sat up in his bed “It’s Tippou, call me Tip, and yes. It’s me. Who is this ?” he had a feeling this was an important matter. Maybe his aunt became sober enough to realize he was gone, though that was almost impossible he still liked to believe it was possible. “My name is Elizabeth, I’m a social worker. Did you know Clarissa Bell ?” the name sounded oddly familiar. “Clarissa Bell ?” he repeated to make sure he heard well. ”Yes. Her.” The lady confirmed. He thought for a few seconds until he finally remembered. “Oh yeah! Clarissa. Yeah. I remember. We went out a few times a while back when I moved to New Hampshire then we never saw each other again. Why ?” Tip was confused why a social worker wanted to know about an old hookup of his. “Clarissa died in a car crash this Wednesday…” the woman paused and Tip quickly panicked thinking they thought he had something to do with the car crash. He saw in that one tv show how easy it is to frame someone. “Oh…” he whispered. “You sure you never spoke to her after your breakup ?” the woman asked. Tip rubbed his eyes and let out a sigh “ No, we didn’t. After we decided that we shouldn’t see each other again I tried to call her to come to my friend’s bakery opening but she never answered my calls. I took the hint. She didn’t wanted to see me again. I understood.” He told the lady, that was the absolute truth there was no reason for him to lie to the social worker. “Why are you asking all this questions ?” he asked, if he was being framed for something he didn’t do he at least had the right to know. The woman took a deep breath before speaking again “I don’t know how to say this to you kid but… “ the lady took another deep breath “… she had a daughter and… you’re the father.” Tip’s mouth opened wide. No. This isn’t happening he thought. No. The boy stared blankly at the wall in front of him not knowing how to react. “Hello ?” the lady called out to check if he was still in line “Yeah. Yeah.” He managed to say. “I know this is a big shock for you but I need you to come by my office at 4 pm. It’s important. Bring some friends or family to help you.” Tips hung up and flew out of the bed. “Mel! Dash! Mel! Dash!” he screamed at the top of his lungs. He found the pain in the kitchen with their eyes wide open. “What happened ?” Mel asked setting the hand mixer down. “I just got a call from a social worker.” He sat down on the floor, he couldn’t feel his legs. “The lady said I had a daughter.” Mel’s mouth flew open. “Wh- What ? H-H-How ?! WHAT?” the girl was so confused, she looked at Dash “Get the cookies.”
After an hour of both trying to explain to his friends what happened and trying to understand what happened Tip managed to get dressed and convince his friends to come with him. He reached the front desk, too self-aware of how much he was sweating and if anyone could tell how much he was shaking. “I-I I was told to come here to speak to Elizabeth. She didn’t told me her last name.” the young lady at the desk smiled at him “You must be Tip Doren. I’ll tell her you are here.” Tip walked back to his friends. “ I don’t know if I can do this.” Melody straightened his shirt. “Go with your gut” the girl told him with a comforting smile. “I just don’t know how this happened…” he sighed “If you don’t know how it happened, you’re not the father.” The girl couldn’t control the giggle. “Now it’s not the time for jokes Mel!” Tip frowned. “Oh lighten up, I was trying to distract you.” Dash placed one hand on Tip’s shoulder “No matter what, we’re here. Forever. You can’t get rid of us. Not even if you tried.” The lady at the desk called him and directed him to Elizabeth’s office.
“Hello Tip. I am so sorry for this short notice. We only managed to get a hold of you today.” He nodded. “Well, let’s talk about this. Clarissa left home when she was younger making her relationship with the family rocky. We contacted them but they had no intentions of taking in the girl. Sadly. We looked all over for you, there were thousands of numbers directed to you until we found your cellphone number. You might be wondering if you’re really the father. She’s 2 months old. So she was conceived 11 months ago.” He thought where he was 11 months ago and everything fit. “If you don’t want to keep her, which I understand, it’s a big responsibility, she’s going to be sent to foster care. I think I covered everything. Do you want some time to think ?” Elizabeth looked at him. “Can I please see her ?” the lady was taken by surprise but quickly stood up from her chair. Tip followed her quietly not saying a word. “She’s here at the nursery. She’s the only one.” Tip saw the little baby wiggling her legs up in the air looking at the mobile. Still not saying a word he opened the door and walked towards the crib. The little girl smiled at him and he felt like being hit by a truck. He couldn’t leave her to foster care, he simply couldn’t, it was a horrible thing to do, she was his daughter he couldn’t just simply leave her. “Hey baby…” he whispered “how are you?” he felt stupid talking to a baby, she would never answer back. The little baby let out what sounded like a little giggle. Tip heard footsteps behind him “She’s precious isn’t she ? She’s always smiling. Her name is Riley, if you’re curious” Tip nodded not taking his eyes off the baby “I can’t leave her to foster care. She deserves a family.” He said, sure of his decision. His grandfather provided him a great childhood, filled with love and care, he couldn’t reject that from his own daughter.” The lady nodded. “We need to take care of some paper work.” Elizabeth said to him, clearly happy of his decision.
After a what felt like 2 hours of paperwork Riley was finally and officially his daughter. Before heading back to his friends he picked the little girl from the crib, she was so small, and fragile and nothing else mattered than her. Tip turned the corner to find his friend playing thumb war on the waiting room, when they realized that Tip arrived they jumped out of the couches. “Oh my god. Tip!” Mel smiled widely. “She’s so tiny.” Dash commented holding gently her little hand. “Her name is Riley.” Tip told his friends with the stupidest smile on his face. “Oh, Tippy, she has your eyes!” Mel shed a little tear. “Another thing. I made sure that if anything happens to me Riley is left to one of you. Doesn’t matter who.” Tip looked at his friends in the eyes to make sure they knew he was serious. “Tippy!” Mel cried out between tears “You stole my baby’s name. Now I have to think of a new one” she giggled playing with Riley’s tiny feet. Dash looked over at Elizabeth “She’s going to be the most spoiled little girl in town.” The lady simply laughed at the boy’s comment “Oh, you can bet your sweet ass she is! I’m going to call Binks!” Mel said excitedly.
Please tell me this is just a cruel trick of my imagination. Please tell me that I'm hallucinating and you're not actually here and I don't have to share a city with you.
