Despite adamantly telling Payton and the girls all week to keep my birthday under wraps and not make a big deal of it, in their typical fashion, they couldn't help themselves and had some surprises waiting for me Friday morning when I arrived at school. To their credit, they did at least halfway listen to me and reigned in what I'm sure were originally much bigger, more embarrassing, plans.

When I get to school I find my locker door all decked out in a million different photos and birthday cards plastered to it from the girls. It's a collage of color, sweet memories and inside jokes cascading down my red locker. Inside it are streamers and confetti covering every square inch not taken up by my school books. I'm not entirely sure how they got a hold of my locker combination, but I'm not surprised they were able to get in without me knowing either. It's so like Payton and the rest of my friends to not let anything stop them from what they put their minds to. Each of them love their people hard, a trait I admire about them and am truly blessed to be on the receiving end of these past three months.

"Payton also bought a birthday sash and crown but I think I was able to convince her to wait until dinner at your house tomorrow before she makes you wear them."

Tyler walks up eyeing the decorations surrounding my locker and greets me with a kiss on the cheek.

"Thanks for that."

I laugh and look up to my handsome boyfriend who's leaning against the lockers next to mine.

"Now don't get mad at me, but I couldn't let your friends, especially not my little sister, show me up....."

Tyler pulls a small bouquet of pink daisies from behind his back.

"Happy Birthday Lila."

"Tylerrrr..." I take the daisies from him with a slight blush covering my cheeks. I'm still getting used to Tyler's public displays of affection.

"You know you didn't need to do this, right? Plus my birthday isn't until tomorrow technically."

"I know, and I knew you would say that too." Tyler chuckles "But I wanted to make your last day of school as a sixteen year old special anyways. If Payton's allowed to get away with decorating your locker then I should be allowed to buy my girlfriend some flowers."

He gives me his biggest, most charming smirk. The one that makes it impossible to argue with him on anything because he looks so dang cute. It's the dimples, they kill me.

"You Johnson's....." I smirk back "...trouble makers, the both of you." I say sarcastically.

"Yeah but we're your favorite kind of trouble."

Tyler swings his arm around my shoulders and we walk towards my first hour class.

***

The rest of the school day went in similar fashion. Payton, Rachel, Kelly and Claire all sang 'Happy Birthday' to me obnoxiously in the cafeteria in front of everyone. Was I a little embarrassed? Well of course, because I'm still working on being ok when the spotlight is on me. But even still, being surrounded by the group of friends I've made here, all of whom I know would walk through fire for me, overpowers any shy tendencies I might have previously let control me.

"We didn't scar you too badly today, right?"

Claire asks and hands me one of the homemade cupcakes she made for my birthday. She doesn't love the spotlight either but goes along with all of Payton, Kelly and Rachel's silly antics. I think she realizes it's good for her the way it's good for me too.

"Surprisingly, no. I guess you all are wearing off on me more than I realized. Thank you all again for making today special." I say genuinely to each of my friends. "I mean I could have gone without the horrible rendition of 'Happy Birthday' just now, but the thought behind it was nice." I joke.

"Hey now, we didn't sound that bad!" Payton rebuttals.

"You sure about that? Let's just say there is a reason you're a great cheerleader but weren't asked to join the school choir Pay. You're definitely....uh.....loud....." Rachel starts trailing off in laughter.

"Very funny." Payton deadpans and the rest of us join Rachel laughing.

***

I wake up to the sound of my phone vibrating against my mattress.

"What time is it....who the heck is calling me this dang early...." I muddle to myself while I feel around my bed blindly for my phone which is somewhere in my covers.

I finally grab the phone and peek with one eye to see it's Charlie facetiming me. Of course. He's just enough of an annoying big brother to call me before 8am on a Saturday knowing I idolize the chance to sleep in on weekends.

"Happy Birthday little sister!"

Charlie's voice echoes through the phone when I answer. I'm still squinting while I wait for my eyes to adjust to the bright screen.

"Thanks. It is my birthday all day you know....you could have waited a little longer before calling me."

Charlie laughs. "Yeah, but I couldn't wait to do this..."

Charlie disappears from the phone screen.

"Huh? Do what?" I ask but he's gone.

A few seconds later my bedroom door flies open. Barreling inside my room is not only Charlie, but Lucas and Tucker along with him too. They dogpile on top of me, smothering me in a giant suffocating hug, tangled between limbs and blankets on my bed. My parents stand at the doorway videoing the whole thing. My mom doing a poor job of holding back tears at the sight of all her kids back together again under one roof.

"You surprised baby sis?!" Charlie beams as the guys untangle themselves from each other and me.

It takes me a second to catch my breath before it really sinks in that all three of my brothers are standing in my room after months of not seeing them.

"I can't believe you all are here! How? When? I have so many questions!" I look at my parents in the doorway "Did you both know they were coming? For how long?!"

"Charlie had the idea a few weeks ago. He called me and Tuck up saying you were down in the dumps over some loser dude breaking your heart or something and we needed to do something to cheer you up. So we made plans to surprise you for your birthday and stay through Thanksgiving since each of us have some time off school right now anyways." Lucas explains.

I realize at that moment I've been so caught up in the fairytale of getting back together with Tyler last week that I haven't even called Charlie to tell him we made up. If I'm honest, I also wasn't entirely sure how to break the news to him either.

"We always told you high school guys suck, Lila. Hopefully now you believe that they're no good for you. But no worries, we're here now, we can take care of this Tyler prick for you. He'll think twice before ever messing with you again." Tuck straightens to his full height. From my seat on the bed he looks even more giant then I remember him being. Did he get bigger biceps too?

My mind begins racing, I give my mom a look of panic.

"Easy boys, no need to send out the bloodhounds on Tyler. He's actually a very sweet boy, you should hear what he did to make things up to Lila. Their first date was basically straight from a fairytale–"

Charlie cuts off my mom.

"Wait, what? Their date?!" Charlie snaps around to me. "Lies, what is she talking about?"

All of my brother's eyes are wide, burning daggers into me waiting for my response. I want to crawl under my covers and hide. I wasn't ready for all these questions before I even made it out of bed today.

"Words Lila, we need some words to come out of your mouth now." Lucas' voice cuts through my thoughts.

I take a steadying breath and nod to my mom that this is something I should do on my own.

"I think we'll leave you four alone for this conversation. Come on honey." My mom pulls my bedroom door shut behind them. Ushering my dad with her down the stairs so my brothers and I can talk privately.

"Well you see.....a week ago Tyler and I made up and now he's kind of my...."

"Your what?" All three of my brothers echo at the same time.

"My boyfriend." I whisper out.

"What?!"

Each of my brothers look completely horrified. Charlie is pacing my bedroom. Lucas, who's generally the calmest of the trio, has his head in his hands sitting at my desk. Tucker looks like he might turn into the hulk at any moment and explode out of his clothes in a fit of rage.

I give them a few minutes to process before I dare say another word.

"I knew this would happen. I knew once we were gone some punk would come after her." Tuck says through gritted teeth to Charlie and Lucas. "I mean even last year when I was the only one left of the three of us some dudes at school got a little too comfortable and I had to shut things down once and for all. I should have known it wouldn't take long at this new school." He shakes his head.

Wait, what? Shut who down? What is Tuck talking about?

My brothers keep talking to each other about me like I'm not sitting in the same room as them.

"I think we should go pay a little visit to this Tyler guy, make sure he knows exactly how we expect him to treat our baby sister." Charlie says.

"Yeah good idea. I want to see for myself who has the nerve to break Lila's heart and then come crawling back to her." Lucas adds.

"Woah, woah, stop guys! First of all, stop talking about me like I'm not here!"

My brothers snap their heads to me on the bed once again.

"Second, nobody is going over to the Johnson's house right now, it's like 7:30am. Can you all please take it down about a hundred notches and let me explain things to you?! I swear Tyler is a good guy.....everything was just one giant misunderstanding.....How about we start with some breakfast first though?"

Charlie takes a breath and answers for the group.

"Fine, breakfast first. But we definitely need to meet this dude....preferably today, Lila."

"Yes, brother. You'll meet him, today even. My friends are supposed to come over for my birthday dinner tonight."

I get up from my bed and throw my robe and slippers on. I feel a little bit like a member of a bomb squad right now. Carefully trying to navigate my way through this conversation without accidentally setting off a nuclear explosion which are my brothers.

"Now, can you all stop acting like cavemen for two seconds? It is my birthday after all. Don't you have to do what I say? It's like a birthday rule or something." I smile with my best puppy dog eyes.

Each of my brothers give me the equivalent of a grunt as we start to make our way downstairs.

"No need for name calling little sis. Is that how you're going to treat your three favorite brothers who traveled all this way to see you on your birthday? We're hurt you think of us like that." Charlie grabs his heart dramatically.

"You three are relentless." I scoff and hit Charlie in the stomach.

"You're probably right, but you know you missed us anyways." Tucker smirks.

"Yeah yeah." I grin back.