Chapter 9 - Birthday

"Sam! Happy birthday!" The twins said with smiling faces when I went to receive them at the door.

"Thanks girls" I simply replied while we all hugged. I haven't seen them lately while on vacation, mainly for my busy schedule, so I was truly happy to see them.

It seemed that they felt the same way as the usually shy girls 'unexpectedly' gave me a quick peck on the lips, while I just smiled back as I usually did in those kind of situations.

Once we started middle school, Claire and the twins seemed to fully accept the boyfriend girlfriend relationship I've had always joked about, and I sure wasn't complaining about it.

"Let's go inside" I invited them, "Claire and Mike arrived just a while ago... Oh! And my sister invited Kate, so don't worry about her teasing you too much" I grinned at them who seemed relieved with the news.

"Wait! Take our gift first, we hope you like it" They suddenly said and gave me a nice looking package. Then without even let me give my thanks, they left towards the living room with rosy cheecks.

With their gift on hand, I smiled at their retreating figures for a little while, and then instead of following them, I went straight to my room to open it.

Like I expected, in the package was a bunch of recently released comics, and also there were two letters cutely decorated. I suppose that the girls had an agreement, because Claire also wrote me a similar looking letter. I just grinned at that thought and kept the letters together in a drawer close to my bed to read them later.

With that out of the way I looked at the comics, and after a short while I could only sigh at what I read. It was clear that I wasn't the only one working hard lately. Comics, books and even toys from my past were being brought up to the world by my peers at an incredible pace.

There's 'C. B. Kenobi' with the sixth issue of 'Star wars', which comes with the good news that the author will get another comic series called 'Transformers'. Popularized by the toys that were available at this Christmas.

'Vera Grindelwald', who appeared recently, now with the second issue of 'Ironman' and 'Captain america'. And I guessed that she was going to be releasing 'Thor' at any moment now.

And the others I knew, namely 'Michael Maul' and 'Fredegar Bolger', have not done much lately. Although it was just a couple of months since I discovered this 'Bolger' guy with his book 'The chronicles of narnia'. And I've heard from Clark that 'Michael' was working on a new comic series named 'The sandman'.

I couldn't be sure if they were the only ones out there, but I really hoped so. There was just so much material I could accurately remember from my past, and the alternatives I had available were shrinking with every 'new' released project.

Thinking about that was just stressful, so for now I just let it go. I planned to enjoy my birthday party and that's what I was going to do. So, with all the enthusiasm I could muster, I went to reunite with everyone.

"Sam! You're just in time, Kate and Claire have one 'pokemon' left. 'Wartortle' versus 'Haunter'" Mike said with in excitement.

I smiled at that. It wasn't long since I released 'pokemon' to the public, and like I hoped, it quickly became an enormous success. Even Kate, who doesn't like video games, was completely hooked.

"Did they say what were the terms of their bet?" I asked. I knew that they've been fighting over something, and thanks to my sister intervention, they conceded to settle it with their current battle.

"That's nothing of your business little brother" My sister replied with a devilish smile. To which I could only laugh awkwardly before focusing in the battle once again.

The battle was pretty even with each 'pokemon' taking some hp from the other, although it was clear that Kate was going to win if things continued that way.

Claire should know that. Right now her 'haunter' couldn't receive another hit, while 'wartortle' could withstand one more. It didn't matter that Kate's 'pokemon' was slower, if nothing happened she was going to win.

Kate's victory seemed an obvious conclusion, but Claire had an out. Her 'haunter' used 'hypnosis' and it connected. This totally turned the tables.

"Damn! You've been lucky with most of your attacks, but this is just too much" Kate complained with some resignation already on her expression.

"Hehehe... It's not over yet though, so who knows what will happen?" Claire replied playfully.

It just took a couple seconds for the animation of the game to catch up, and unfavorably for Kate her 'haunter' didn't wake up, which means that the next turn will decide the winner.

Everyone was concentrated looking at the two 'gameboyz' in the middle. Even the twins, who aren't fans of the game and until now were just whispering things with one another, were dead quiet like the rest of us.

'Haunter' attacked successfully, leaving 'wartortle' with just a little amount of hp left. Then, to a surprised and ecstatic Kate, 'wartortle' woke up, followed up with the finishing move that gave her the victory.

"Yeah!" Kate exclaimed loudly, "I really won"

"Congratulations! Good game Kate" Mike said with excitement.

"Yeah, congrats" Kate said with a tired sigh. Followed with everyone else complimenting both girls for the entertaining duel.

Then, as if waiting for his cue to interrupt us, my father appeared with a big pizza at hand that made everyone forget about anything else.

My father was really popular with my friends for this reason. I even dare to say that we use to hang out mostly in my house just because my dad would make pizza.

"So, how's everything?" My father asked me when the rest was completely inmersed with the pizza.

"Everything is fine, we were playing 'pokemon' and now I was thinking on us watching a movie" I replied truthfully.

"Nice, we rented recently some movies for your research. So if you want to play some of them, look for the movies at the top of the pile"

At that I just looked at him with tired eyes. I was tired with all the writing, planning, programming and researching I had to do lately. I couldn't complain though, I chose all of this by myself.

"Hahaha, don't put that face. You should be happy of being able to write your own movie"

"I know" I simply said. "What about the toy company, have they replied yet?" I asked, trying to change the topic.

"Oh! Yeah, they did. With the big success of your game, and the news that there was going to be a cartoon about it shortly, they were even more interested in doing the card game. And they even conceded to the demands you made" He said with a large smile.

"Perfect!" I said, bumping my fist in the air.

Striking the market with the game, the cartoon, and the playing cards, all at the same period of time, was the best alternative I had to try to recreate the huge popularity this franchise had.

"Emmm, Sam if you are not hungry, could I eat the last slice of pizza?" Mike asked me with said pizza already on his greasy hands.

"Yeah, go ahead" I replied plainly. The timing was weird with me being excited with the news, besides that, I didn't have a problem in waiting for the next pizza to be ready.

Mike was a little weird and I still wasn't sure why we were friends to begin with. I guess that him being the only guy in class not hating on me by the 'rumors' of me dating the class's cutest girls, was enough for me.

"Hahaha... You're a good friend" My father laughed once Mike started eating like it was all good. And after talking about some other things he went back to the kitchen.

"Sooo, what are we going to watch?" My sister asked us with a couple of movies at hand.

With my father gone, the silence was starting to seize the room, and like always my sister saved the situation. That was her superpower.

"What movies do you have?" Ellie asked quickly and with her sister at her side, they approached Hanna.

I smiled at their eagerness. The twins truly loved movies, they were even part of the school's theater club. With the new 'job' I had, I was considering to ask the studio for a couple of roles for them in one of the movies I was working on. Although I had to write a script first, and I wasn't having any success with that.

"They are going to take a while, won't they?" Claire sighed.

"Don't worry, my parents returned most of the movies, and then just rented five or so" I said while sitting next to her in the couch.

I hugged her by the waist and rested my head on her shoulder, enjoying for a bit the closeness we had.

"This again, why don't you show your affection when I'm not here?" Mike complained from the side.

"Stop complaining, you should ask out the girl you have been talking about lately" Kate defended me.

"Yeah, who was she again?" Claire asked him while hugging me tighter.

"None of your business!" Mike said flustered, and then went with the others to choose a movie.

"I think that he likes you Kate... So if you don't feel the same and he confesses, try to be nice when rejecting him" I said. I wasn't sure about it, but better be prepared than sorry.

"Yeah, I don't... And if you're right, things will be a little awkward at our next meetings" Kate said while looking at Claire with complicity.