Roddy: Roddy's Family Journal: Happy Birthday To You

I love my family. They throw great parties. Excellent ones. I have taught them well.

Today was the first birthday I celebrated on my own terms! It was a lot of fun. There was a whole lot of people there! Dad and Pops and Jonn and Luci and Goro and Theo and Joan and Amari and Raef and Az and Nico and Ombre and Grandma and Uncle Leigh and Larkin even showed up! I thought she wouldn’t but it was still nice to see. Vaala came too! I don’t think she really knew what she was doing, but I’m glad she came anyway.

It was a big, fun day! I had been dropping hints about games I liked. Which amounted to telling people about stuff I found particularly fun but it worked! We bobbed for apples, and I won cause I could hold my breath really long to fish around after them. That’s why it’s one of my favorites. And we had a pinata! I missed and whacked Dad instead. He was fine though, I’m not strong enough to hurt him. I think Goro went and hid in the corner while that was going on, probably didn’t wanna be around all the blindfolded people waving sticks. Which is fair, Dad wasn’t the only one to get whacked. Pops ended up trying to duel blindfolded. It was hilarious. Well I managed to get Vaala to give it a go, and she busted it wide open! I made sure she had a handful of candies. I think I actually saw her eating them too.

We also had this bag toss game. I’m bad at it, so I used to hate it, but it turns out I don’t mind losing so much when it’s to my family. Well this family. Except I don’t think we actually managed to finish the game to have a proper winner. Larkin decided it was more fun to throw the bags at her opponents, and then it turned into some sort of free for all. Poor Raef ended up with a black eye. Az got one stuck on his horn defending him. And then they had to go cause we’d woke up Tikva and she was crying.

Then it was presents time. There was a lot of great stuff. The fun part though was how everyone was there. I loved all the gifts, even the stuff I wouldn’t have got myself. (Vaala brought a boar stuffed with vegetables. It was delicious though.) Then we broke out the booze and cake. Dad had figured out how to make that chocolate caramel one I really liked! And I think Luci decorated it, and it was really pretty, and it said ‘Happy 18th Birthday Roddy!’ on it.

Anyway that’s when I ended up crying. Happy crying! There was just so many people who love me, and who I love. A year ago today I was in jail, I didn’t have any friends, my family’d ditched me, I was gonna get sold into slavery and scared out of my wits. Now I got so many people who’s got my back, and it’s just so good.

After I was done crying I told everyone I had to get something and I’d be right back. I popped up and got my paints and popped back down. Asked everyone to sign my shell. Maybe not a full name, maybe just initials or a handprint or something. I’d scrubbed the old paint off, so now all I’ve got right now is my family. I wonder if I can find someone to enchant it to be permanent. That’d be neat.

It’s been a good day. I should sleep though. I’m gonna have such a hangover tomorrow. Larkin brought some really good booze and I drank too much. This was the best birthday I ever had. Maybe next year will be even better!