Happy Birthday to Me (OPEN)

[Adrianna Carstyn]

Set September 16th



September 16th, an important date in Adrian's life. Her birthday. Not an important birthday, she was just turning seventeen. No biggie. The pond was quiet, and for the most part empty besides the few people walking their dogs or whatever.

Her seventeenth birthday and she was alone. No party, no family, just alone. It had been a week or so since her over usage of power with Izzy. She hadn't seen him since she left the infirmary. It had been kind of awkward, he felt responsible, but she didn't understand why. He hadn't been the one forcing her to use her power, she used it on her own. She pushed her limit.

She hadn't seen Robbie much since their talk either, but she understood why. He was working on getting his best friend back. Adrianna was happy things were returning to normal for him. He deserved that much. He had been pretty clueless when it came to the prank. She still blamed Zac. Adrian wanted to believe he had potential to be a good guy, but he never acted like that around her.

Adri hadn't really hung out with anyone else recently. Lucah and Ash were busy with their infatuations, she didn't have many other people to talk to. And she was supposed to be Miss Social Butterfly.

Well this butterfly was alone on one of the days she wanted to have something to do.

[Egan Monroe]

Egan missed home. He missed home more than anything. His brother was here at school with him, and that was wonderful, really it was. If Eli hadn’t been here, Egan…well…he didn’t want to think about what would have happened. But still. Eli had friends, and classes, and studying, and he couldn’t be with his brother all the time. That would be silly. And Egan wasn’t the possessive type…to a degree. He loved his brother very much, and he wished he could have Eli to himself all the time, but he didn’t complain when that didn’t happen.

It was on one of these days where Eli was busy and Egan was lonely that the younger brother found himself at the pond. He had always enjoyed going for walks outside, and the pond was one of his favorite places. Raising his hand over the water a bit, Egan concentrated a bit and lifted some water out of the pond in the shape of a dog. The dog looked at him, tilted its head, and wagged its tail. Egan smiled a bit, comforted by the little thing, but the smile wasn’t there for long. Out of the corner of his eye, the teenager spotted a girl sitting at the water’s edge. She looked very forlorn, and it made Egan frown. He lowered the aqua dog gently back to the water, released it, and hesitantly got up. It took him a few attempts to get more than a few steps before backtracking, but eventually the idea of him looking ridiculous pacing back and forth became more embarrassing than the idea of walking over, so he forced himself to approach the girl and sit next to her.

“Hi…” Egan had to clear his throat a bit to raise the volume of his voice, which had hardly been a whisper. “I um…I saw that you looked real sad, and…I um…I mean, not that that’s necessarily a bad thing…I just was…well, I mean to say…is there anything I can do to help?” Egan blushed furiously and stared at the grass in shame at his stumbling, but at least he had managed to talk to her.

[Adrianna Carstyn]

Adrianna had been oblivious to her surroundings. She just stared out at the pond and chewed on her lower lip as she thought. She didn't really understand why she had to always think about things. It was frustrating. She sighed and frowned.

When she looked up at the sound of a voice she was surprised anyone had even been there. She must have really been out of it. The boy that sat beside her was pretty cute. He seemed beyond nervous, as were most of the guys that came up to her. They all were intimidated by the strong, beautiful California girl. Though she wasn't intimidating once someone got to know her. She liked to pretend she was strong, but in reality, she had problems with weakness too. Like trusting too many people.

She smiled at him, "Well you could always keep me company. It's my birthday and being alone on a birthday is never fun." Adrian said with a slight frown. She was genuinely sad that she didn't have anyone to really hang out with today. Hopefully that would change though.

Adrianna replaced the frown with a charming smile and continued looking at the boy. Maybe he was new? Though he didn't seem young enough to be.

[Egan Monroe]

Egan rubbed the back of his neck as he sat next to the girl. He couldn’t bring himself to look at her, not that he was exactly determined to. He wanted to meet her, of course, and to cheer her up and such, but he was definitely not the best at meeting people and that made things so much harder. He wasn’t sure what it was that made him so afraid. No one had ever caused any serious harm. Sure, there had been the kids who had picked on him and stuff in elementary, middle, and high school, but none had ever done much physical damage. A few bruises, a black eye here and there, but really not much on the grand scheme of things. And yet here he was, heart racing just because he was sitting next to a stranger. He was just lucky it was a girl. If it had been a guy, and especially if said guy had been bigger than him, he’d be much worse off than a racing heart.

He glanced up at her as she spoke, but only for a second before he had to look back down. “I’m sorry…that sounds terrible.” He said quietly, chewing his lip a bit. “Happy birthday. How old are you now?”

It caught Egan a bit by surprise when he suddenly tasted a bit of blood, but he realized quickly that he had just chewed his lip a bit too hard. He let go of it and blushed a bit, hoping she hadn’t noticed the blood. “Oh…um…I almost forgot. My name’s Egan…what’s yours?”

[Adrianna Carstyn]

Adrianna watched as the boy fidgeted, he was definitely nervous, but it wasn't in a flirty way. He seemed to be nervous about just her in general. Something must have really freaked him out. She felt sort of bad for making him so nervous. It wasn't intentional this time. Though most of the time she enjoyed making people nervous, just by being around.

She smiled when he said happy birthday. It was nice hearing it, even if it was from a stranger. "I'm seventeen. Not that big of a deal, but still it's not much fun being a loner." She laughed once without any real humor in her tone. She looked down and sighed.

Adrianna heard him speak again and she looked up to see him blushing. She smiled slightly trying to show him that she wasn't that scary. "I'm Adrianna, but Adrian or Adri works." She flipped her hair over her shoulder and tightened her arms around her knees, "Egan is a pretty unique name." She tried making some form of conversation at least.

[Egan Monroe]

Usually, the pond was a place Egan could go to be alone. It was quiet, beautiful, fairly empty, and very still. He rarely talked to anyone when he was at the pond, or really in any natural setting. He wasn’t sure what it was. He wasn’t some tree hugger who liked to go “back to his roots” or “be one with nature” or anything ridiculous like that. There was just something about the lack of people, the lack of civilization, the lack of expectations that made him feel free and peaceful and relaxed.

However, going to the pond wasn’t always free, or peaceful, or relaxing. Sometimes there were people around who looked upset, and Egan felt compelled to make them feel better. That wasn’t to say he was any good at it. The only thing he could do with any sort of success rate was hug, and he wasn’t going to hug a perfect stranger. Well, not unless they asked for it.

Egan bit his lip a bit when she said she was seventeen, but it wasn’t a big deal. “Seventeen is a wonderful year.” He said quietly. “Just…just because there isn’t some hullabaloo over it…like…like being able to smoke or drink or be considered a real adult…that…that doesn’t mean it’s not important. I mean…just…just look at sixteen. You can’t do anything new…not really. But people still obsess over it.” He bit his lip harder and ducked his head lower. “I’m sorry…I was rambling…” He gulped and tried to regain his composure. “But…but um…yeah…being alone…I can’t imagine how hard that is for you. Are you very used to having friends?” Egan wasn’t at all used to being around people, obviously, and he would hate the feeling of loneliness if he was.


“Adrianna is a beautiful name.” He tried to speak up a bit, but it didn’t work. “Is it okay if I call you Adrianna, or…or would you prefer one of the other two? It’s very nice, and I think it suits you quite well.” He blushed a bit when she talked about his name. “Oh…I…I guess it is. Adrianna is very unique too.”

[Adrianna Carstyn]

Adrianna was surprised she had any company. The pond had been pretty quiet lately, not many people out and about. She hadn't come for the seclusion, just for some time to wallow in her own self-pity, considering the Student Lounge was apparently a bad place for that (as Zac had so rudely pointed out to her). She missed her mother most when she was having a birthday, sure she had talked to her on the phone and all, but this was different. She needed her mom.

Adri chewed on the inside of her cheek as she thought about the birthdays she had before she came to Hammel. Two birthdays, one at midnight with just her and her mother and then a party for all of her friends. Spoiled? Maybe, but there was nothing wrong with it, her and her mother just liked having their own personal birthdays together.

"I don't know, it just doesn't seem very important to me. And don't worry, I ramble all the time, it's fine." She smiled again reassuringly, hoping it would comfort him at least a little. "I'm pretty social, well I used to be at least. I don't have very many friends, more enemies than anything." She frowned. It was true, she had now gotten more enemies than friends. How? By being herself. She didn't understand why she was so hated by people, but Zac wasn't the only one who turned out to hate her.

Adrian snapped out of her reverie and smiled, "Thank you and call me whatever you'd like. Some people just find it easier to remember Adri cuz it's short." She shrugged and smiled when he blushed. "I guess my name is kinda unique, but your name is much cooler." She laughed quietly and smiled slightly wider.