A party to remember [open]

"Everybody!"

That had been Pixie's excited answer to Carla when the hapless counsellor had asked who she wanted to invite to her birthday party the previous day. It was completely true; Pixie didn't see why anyone should be left out of such an important occasion as her fifteenth birthday party. Nor had she thought through the logistics of simply springing it on the adults with just over twenty four hours' notice. Pixie, being Pixie, had failed to notice that parties didn't simply spring out of nowhere, particularly in places where magic wasn't allowed to be used. But her enthusiasm had been such that the counsellors had agreed that, as there was a cookout planned for the following evening, it could indeed be Pixie's birthday party, and they were sure they could find a suitable cake.

Pixie had dressed for the occasion in a particularly appalling set of dungarees that she had bought in Hogsmeade for a dare a couple of months earlier, and had broken into the frankly enormous stash of sweets and candies she had brought with her for midnight feasts. Instead, she had spent a happy couple of hours that afternoon in the creative arts cabin, wrapping up party favours that were now stacked in a basket next to the dessert table, which she had convinced herself was entirely in her honour. The reality, of course, was that the planned cookout had just been made rather more elaborate than it would otherwise have been.

Then there was the cake. it was the most amazing confection of multicoloured chocolate delight the Gryffindor had ever seen, and she'd been promised that she would be allowed to cut it herself later and find out the surprise inside. Secretly, Pixie hoped it was going to explode more chocolate, or perhaps glitter, but she had wisely kept that thought to herself. For now, she was just excited to see everyone turn up and hear some of them commenting on the long table that had been set for the meal, or the hanging decorations and the lights that hung above the table, even if the counsellors had already voiced their doubts about students wanting to sit there. Most people would likely collect their food and sit in groups on the grass.

Pixie didn't care. It was a party, and it was her birthday, and that was what mattered, and later there would be games and storytelling and campfire songs. Delighted, she grabbed the basket of candies and began handing them out, chatting to the people she knew and introducing herself with "Hi, I'm Pixie. Welcome to my fifteenth birthday party!" to those she didn't.

[Please join in! Pixie thrives on mayhem!]

Mum complained sometimes that there were too many Tricketts running around England. Too many brothers, too many uncles and aunts and cousins with their weird Norse names that she couldn't always pronounce. Shelby usually liked being part of a big family, but sometimes she found herself commiserating with her mother. It was a lot to keep track of - it felt like every family gathering Shelby was getting introduced to a new someone that had been on the family tree the whole time, but hadn't made themself known to Shelby somehow.

There were only a few of them at camp, and luckily there were no surprise American Tricketts joining them. Still, the night of July 23rd Shelby bolted wide awake, knocking her head on the top bunk and waking Tomie in her panic.

It was Pixie's birthday in two days.

She spent the day of July 24th in a panic induced mania, learning how to make friendship bracelets from a very tired, very over it Counselor Teddy. The final product was not as neat as she had hoped, but Shelby had managed to weave in a "P" into the band. P for Pixie, her cousin's chosen name. She did the bracelet in red and yellow, with a couple of strings of orange for texture. It wasn't much, but it was better than forgetting entirely.

She showed up to the "party" with her gift stuck in a little blue envelop, with her cousin's name written in cursive on the outside. Shelby waved her down. "Happy birthday, Pixie!" Giving her cousin a hug, she realized that she was taller than Pixie now, too. Merlin, she hoped she would stop growing soon. "This is for you." She held out the envelope. "Hope you like it!"

"Shelby!" Pixie squealed as she spotted her cousin. Now it really felt like a party! Being out here with lots of new people was fun and exciting, but deep down the Gryffindor missed her family. Not just her Mum and Dad, but all her cousins and aunts and uncles who weren't here. Not that she would tell anyone, of course.

Nor had she been expecting presents, at least not from anyone here. her face broke into a beaming smile and she hugged the younger girl, a little frustrated that the younger girl was already taller than she was. Merlin, couldn't she just hurry up and have a proper growth spurt already? Pixie didn't want to have to look up to everyone for the rest of her life. "Thank you!" she exclaimed, and then tried to take the envelope and hand Shelby a bag of candy at the same time, failed, and giggled. "Would you hold this for a minute?" she asked, holding out the basket and then tearing open the envelope.

The contents almost fell out in her eagerness, and she caught the flash of her house colours in one hand and held it up to examine. "Like it? I LOVE it! Can you help me put it on?" she took the basket back and set it on the ground, forgotten for the moment as she held out her wrist eagerly.

Freddie knew that it was Pixie's birthday and that the dinner was more like a birthday party than a regular camp dinner. While the boy liked the fellow Gryffindor, he was not too eager to attend a birthday party for a very simple reason – he had no money to spare for a present and he wasn't really close enough to the girl that he would come up with a self-made gift that she could like and that would not make things awkward.

However, he was hungry and he thought it would be cruel not to go to Pixie's party and congratulate. He knew he'd be disappointed if he invited someone and they didn't show up. The boy spent the entire day, thinking about what he could give the girl for the sake of not going there empty handed.

In the end he decided to pluck some flowers. He found some black-eyed Susans, coneflowers and asters and found that this was a small friendly looking albeit not exactly romantic bouquet – or so he hoped anyway. While he liked Pixie, he did not like her like that. He approached her when she was speaking to a younger girl whom he did not know by name but she was a member of the huge Trickett family as well as far as he knew.

He approached the girls smiling. “Hey,” he announced his presence, “happy birthday, Pixie, I've got this for you.” He held out the bouquet and shrugged nonchalantly. He did not want to add anything about him hoping that she liked the flowers. In fact, he almost hoped that she did not particularly like them because he really didn't want an awkward situation – in particular not with her. Pixie was Aase's cousin and he really liked the other Trickett more than just a little.

Pixie was still admiring the bracelet when another voice caught her attention. She turned, a huge grin on her face to see her housemate Freddie, holding something in his hands which he offered to her. The Gryffindor's first thought was that he'd pinched them from someone's garden, though of course there weren't people actually lving round here. She didn't suppose they would have much sleep, what with the midnight feasts and sing-songs that seemed to be going on in practically every room so far. Pixie herself had managed about three hours decent sleep the previous night and was currently feeling fine, but after another late night she would likely be falling asleep over breakfast tomorrow morning. Right now that didn't matter though; because she was surrounded by people and the whole evening promised to be another grand adventure.

"Thanks Freddie, they're...great!" she said, with just the tiniest hesitation as she accepted them. Whether he'd got them from someone's garden or not, it was the thought that counted, that's what Dad always said. They hadn't been tied very well, she realised, and already one of the black-eyed susans was escaping from the makeshift bouquet. So she plucked it from the bunch and stuck it in her hair, just above her left ear. "What do you think, does it suit me?" she asked with a grin, turning so both Freddie and Shelby could see what she'd done.

"So how's camp so far?" she asked excitedly "I saw you in the Quodpot tournament the other night, you did better than me, did you see I got knocked out when the quaffle exploded..." she dissolved into amused giggles at the memory, thinking how hilarious Quidditch matches would be if the balls would suddenly blow up in peoples' faces without warning. Belatedly, she quickly bent to grab some sweets to hand to the boy in case he hadn't already noticed them.