Chapter Text
The time had finally come, Jim was going to have her 18th birthday in a week. She was the youngest among her friend group and so forth was also the last to turn 18. This also led to her acting a bit childish around the others, but they didn't mind.
For a long time, Jim had been telling her best friend Yam about how she had always wanted this big, glittery party with all of her friends, gifts, cake and everything you possibly imagine for such a milestone. But now, since Jim was living alone in only a petite apartment, she wouldn't even be able to cover the costs of a big cake, so eventually, she came to terms with the fact that she was just going to go eat ice cream in town with some of her friends.
Yam was able to see the sadness in her eyes when Jim had first told her. And so, a month before Jim's actual birthday, Yam came up with the plan to throw her best friend the surprise party of her dreams. But not just her of course, she was going to invite all of their friends as well. All of them, especially Yam, would give everything just to see their slightly baby-ish friend happy. Yam's 18th birthday, in contrast to this huge project, had been very small, with only a few people celebrating and a little skate show organized by them. This was one of the few things Jim and her were completely in different worlds about. Yam adored things staying simple, whereas Jim sometimes loved to go a bit overboard with her ideas. But, aside from the few differences they did have, the pair was basically the same person and they loved each other dearly. Very excited, Yam immediately started making plans over plans and sketches over sketches, wanting the final design to be perfect.
Yam was one of the few people of their friends that actually knew how to properly organize an event like this, in fact, she had helped a bit with the Open Musics in the past. So, to get everything ready in time, Yam started her plans a whole month before they were actually due. At first, she created a group chat concerning the party and added almost everybody Jim knew: Luna, Nina, Nico and so on and so forth, hell, even Delfi and Jazmín. Yam just had to 'politely' tell them to not tell Ámbar, in order to not ruin the surprise.
You see, Nico was a special person to Jim. The two had been in love with each other for quite some time now, but they had never actually gotten around to dating... or so Yam thought. What she didn't know, was that the two had actually unofficially been dating for a few weeks now, they hadn't told anyone, since Nico was 20, Jim was a minor and the pair wasn't certain whether or not it was even legal.
Eventually, after two days time, everyone had agreed to come and help organize. This was one of the many reasons Yam loved her friends, she could always count on them, even for executing ridiculously huge ideas such as this one. Nico, of course, was the most excited when he had heard the news. He decided that this would call for a special present...
Over the span of the next three weeks, most things had come together. Yam had finished designing the decor and ordering it as well. What she also designed, was what she called 'adding her special touch'. With a little bit of help from Delfi and Jazmín and their fashion sense, she had created a special birthday dress just for Jim.
And, being the main organiser, Yam had to make sure to keep intruders from crashing the party. After some arguing between Matteo and her (and needing the help of Luna to convince him in the end), they settled on Matteo 'practicing' some moves for the next Open with Ámbar, somewhere far away from the party, he even promised.
Week two of planning, Nico, Pedro and Yam decided that the Jam&Roller would be the perfect place for everything, due its familiarity and its optimal size. Sometime during the week, Nico finally managed to convince Yam to help with the decor because he 'knew the bar', while in reality, he just wanted to contribute and on their first first date, Jim had indirectly told him that he knew how to decorate.
Since Nina and Simón knew how to bake, they decided to bake the big cake by themselves, instead of just ordering it. In the meantime, Luna got approval from Tamara to close the bar for the party. A big question was whether or not they should play music. In the end, they finalized singing a group song together. Nina also added that 'this many people are sure to keep the room loud and occupied'. During the heights of their planning, everyone also bought gifts for Jim. Yam had told specifically them: 'Big is good, but value is better', and that's what they had mostly gone by. Even Matteo had gotten her a giftand asked Gastón to give it to her.
It was really hard to keep their plans a secret when Jim continuously blabbled about the big day. Luckily enough, they were all able to keep quiet and to Yam, Jim seemed clueless. To avoid the oblivious Jazmín accidentally ruining the surprise, which wouldn't be her first time, Delfi got her to ignore Jim altogether.
One week left. Everything was in place, ready to be done. This was the time when Yam's self-conscious thoughts kicked in. 'What if she doesn't like it? What if it's too much? She's not into surprises.' But luckily, Nina and Luna were able to snap her out of it. On top of that, Yam was also under the stress of preparing her gift, organising... so she drew a rough sketch of what she wanted the bar to look like and handed it, together with the decor, to Nico. He was more than excited, but he also had to prepare a very valuable gift: he was going to officially ask her to be his girlfriend in front of the others. He told nobody, not even Yam knew of this, he had only told her that 'he would come later'. So, Nico bought everything to convince his girl: flowers, a teddy bear and a ring. Would it be enough?
The week of her birthday, everyone was so surprised at how quiet they had kept. This week, Luna proposed the idea of adding a certain twist. They would all pretend to have forgotten Jim's birthday. At first, everyone thought it was too cliché, but Nina joined in on her best friend's idea, stating that Jim would be too busy thinking about it to realise.
Yam knew seeing her best friend like this would break her heart, so she added one final thing before agreeing with the rest. She wanted Pedro to act like he was 'the only one' that remembered her birthday, so he could at least sort of keep her happy and, so he could get her back to the bar later.
Yam would distract her in the meantime. After they eventually agreed, they made plans for Friday, the day before, during school hours, to make everything final.