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The upcoming Friday night was Normal’s birthday, and the teens and Hermie had a surprise party planned. Taylor had worked non-stop for the whole week making sure that Sparrow, Rebecca, Hero and the other teens’ parents knew what the plan was so the surprise was perfect and that Normal had no clue what was happening before he got home.
When Taylor had told Normal to go to the other side of a school to ‘talk to a teacher’, he had made it so the other teens could get to planning the party.
“As you all know, tomorrow is Normal’s birthday,” Taylor announced to the group. The teens made varying noises of acknowledgement.
“Is there going to be a party?” Hermie asked, his face displaying an expression unreadable to anyone else. Taylor nodded and got to explaining the details of the party and emphasised that absolutely nobody can say anything to Normal or it would ruin the surprise.
To the teens’ shock, but mostly Taylor’s, Normal arrived to join the group at a dangerously early time.
“Someone else said that teacher wasn’t here today,” Normal said, sitting down between Hermie and Lincoln. When nobody said anything, Normal frowned. “Is something wrong?”
Taylor, with wide eyes, was about to talk, but Hermie beat him to it. “We were just talking about the fact that your birthday is on a school day. Kinda sucks.” Taylor’s head snapped to look at the theatre kid, but the surprise was still safe, and Normal was none the wiser.
“Yeah. At least it's just before the weekend, so I can stay up later to watch movies or something.” Normal shrugged, “It's not like enough people would care enough to come to a party anyway.” Just as Scary was about to tell him to shut up and cease his self-depreciation, the bell rang, marking the end of lunch. “I’ll see you guys later,” Normal said, before picking up his belongings and being the first to leave the table. He didn’t share any classes with any of the others for the rest of the day, so it was likely the next time they’d see each other enough to be able to talk was the next morning.
And so the next day, Normal’s birthday, had finally arrived. He sprinted out of his room and sat down to open his presents as fast as he could, with his parents contentedly watching. When it came time to go to school, Rebecca kept her promise to Taylor and the teens and made sure not to say anything that might hint towards what was planned after school. When they got to school and Normal met up with the group, the noise that came from the teens sounded less like a “Happy birthday, Norm!” and more like a chorus of dying animals.
Normal’s face lit up and he gathered his friends in a tight group hug. When they all broke away, Taylor opened his backpack and fished around for a few seconds before pulling out a birthday card and handed it to Normal. The other teens did so too, and Normal spent the next few minutes reading each card and thanking his friends. When he finished reading the cards, he beamed at the group, “You guys are awesome.”
The day dragged on to the dismay of all of the teens, and all each of them wanted was for school to end to celebrate Normal’s birthday. When Normal got home, he was confused to learn that Sparrow was taking him out for some after school ice cream for a couple of hours. However, Normal wasn’t disheartened at all, and he happily went along with it.
When Normal had received his ice cream and Sparrow had paid for it, they went over to a table to sit down. Normal had gotten the pistachio flavour, his favourite, and was happily digging into his cup of ice cream with the little plastic spoon. A few minutes of silence had passed before Sparrow spoke.
“How was your day at school?” He asked, straightening up and looking directly at his son. Normal gulped the last of his mouthful and went into detail animatedly about how in one class the teacher brought cupcakes for everyone, and his friends each gave him a birthday card at lunch. Sparrow reached over the table to put his hand on Normal’s shoulder, and took a breath. “I’m just glad you’re making friends.”
Norm smiled softly. “So am I.”
It didn’t take long for all of the teens to begin to arrive and help set up the surprise party. Each person came in with their gift for Normal and placed it on the table before starting their individual tasks of hanging up streamers, putting the food out, blowing up the balloons and all else. Rebecca was delighted to see the teens working together as she supervised, and soon Normal and Sparrow had returned home from their afternoon birthday ice cream trip. The teens got in position hiding behind the furniture, and when Normal opened the door and walked through, they sprung out to greet him.
“Surprise!”
As Normal looked frantically between his family and friends, his shock dissolved into a huge smile. “What–How did you guys-” he sputtered out, and they surrounded him in the second group hug of the day.
Hermie spoke up in a whisper, “You see, it was quite easy. But I think I’ll keep that a secret for another day.” He then gave Normal a brief pat on the shoulder and separated from the group hug, gathering everyone’s attention with a single loud clap. “Let’s get this party started, shall we?” The room immediately filled with the whoops and cheers of the other teens.
They had fun eating junk food, playing party games like pass the parcel and beating up the poor piñata way past the point in which it broke open and dropped the candy inside. Eventually, it was time for the birthday cake. Rebecca turned off the lights and walked back into the room with a white cake detailed with blue icing swirls and the words, ‘Happy Birthday Normal!’ in front of two big lit candles with the numbers one and six. As Rebecca placed the cake in front of Normal at the table, the teens began to crowd around him, singing happy birthday rather off key.
“Make a wish Normal,” Lincoln said. Normal glanced at Hermie, looked down at the flames of the candles as their movements danced, and closed his eyes for a couple seconds before inhaling and blowing both of the candles in one breath. While Normal was focusing on cutting the cake, Taylor laughed, “If you touch the bottom with the knife, you have to kiss the nearest person.” And, as soon as he said it, the group simultaneously stepped back to put a small distance between themselves and Normal. When Normal looked up at everyone, the person nearest to him just so happened to be Hermie.
Normal’s face immediately flushed and he turned his focus back to the cake, continuing to cut out the slices with slightly shaky hands. “I- Uh-”
Hermie spoke up, “If you don’t want to do it, no pressure. I don’t mind either way.”
For that, Normal was relieved, but at the same time he felt a pang of disappointment spreading across his chest. ‘Did I actually want to kiss Hermie?’ He shook his head to clear his thoughts, and before long everyone was sitting around the table eating their slices of cake. And when everyone was finished, Taylor snapped up, remembering they had the karaoke machine and couch set up for them in the basement.
“Come on guys, let's go downstairs already,” he said, taking everyones paper plates and haphazardly disposing of them. When the group was downstairs, Taylor got the machine set up. They all talked amongst themselves while Taylor was cursing under his breath about how tangled the cords were. Eventually though, it was ready to go, and Taylor turned it on, holding the microphone out to Normal. “First up has gotta be the birthday boy.”
Normal took the mic from Taylor and laughed nervously before looking at the screen and scrolling for a song he could sing, trying to scroll slowly to stall for time. Taylor was getting visibly impatient, his foot tapping quickly against the concrete floor. Eventually his impatience became too unbearable. “Here, lemme choose one for you. Let’s see… ‘California Gurls’ by Katy Perry. You know that one, right?”
“Okay, but I’ve only ever listened to the marching band cover.” The song was selected and the pulsing melody blared through the speakers, making Lincoln jump from the sudden noise. The coloured words on the screen prompted Normal to nervously start singing along with the music, albeit a little out of time. Taylor, Link and Hermie were bobbing their heads along, and Scary pretended to be irritated by the upbeat tune as she hid her smile with her sleeve.
Once it reached Snoop Dogg’s rap, it turned to chaos. At the “Kiss her, touch her, squeeze her buns” part, Taylor shouted an exaggerated moan, similar to the one in the song, earning a few disgusted looks and a hit on the arm from Scary. Normal turned to glare at him, rolling his eyes and continued on with the song.
“Katy, My lady?”.
“Yeah?” Hermie replied, causing Normal to almost break into a coughing fit.
“Lookie here, baby.”
“Uh huh.”
He stumbled on his words, forgetting his place on the song temporarily, and he didn’t dare look at Hermie for the rest of the song in fear he’d get lost in his mesmerising green and brown eyes. When the song was over, the teens cheered at Normal, and he walked over to the couch to sit down and watch the person up next.
Taylor sprung up from his seat and grabbed the microphone, scrolling through the song list for only a few seconds before he selected his song. The theme song of Ouran Highschool Host Club started to play, and Scary groaned exaggeratedly and slouched, putting her head in her hand in an attempt to endure the next minute and a half.
Although it was obvious Taylor was putting way too much effort into the song ironically, the performance could have been way worse in the teens’ honest opinions. As Taylor was singing his heart out in the anime girl voice, Normal thought about the lyrics as he sang, ‘And I would like to find a hand like yours to take mine,’ and he stole a quick glance at Hermie, looking down at his hands and then his own. Something about how Hermie reacted to being the one that was supposed to kiss Normal when he cut the cake ignited a small flame inside his heart, and he smiled to himself.
After the applause for Taylor had finished, Scary stepped up to the karaoke machine. As she scrolled, she sighed and mumbled ‘no’ for every song she didn’t like. Eventually she settled on a song and selected it, and ‘I’m Not Okay (I Promise)’ started playing. The world seemed to disappear from Scary’s view for the duration of the song, and she sang out all of her teen angst and frustration. To Normal, it was one of the best feelings, seeing his friends be so unapologetically themselves. It was uncommon to see Scary this carefree and in her element, and even more so for her to be doing it willingly and comfortably in front of other people. Sure, Scary had sung in front of her friends before, but never with this much emotion, and it was something that Normal admired.
When it was Lincoln’s turn, he was hesitant to sing. He didn’t know any of the songs that were on the list, until one familiar title caught his attention. “Oh my dad showed me this song,” he said to himself, selecting it. ‘Chug Jug With You’ started playing and Lincoln picked up the microphone. The only problem was that he was singing too quietly, and so Taylor decided to turn the mic volume up on the machine. This caused the speakers to screech from the feedback, and the teens immediately covered their ears trying to shield the noise out.
“Turn it down!” Hermie shouted, but Taylor couldn’t hear.
“What?” He shouted back, and Hermie pointed towards the karaoke machine Taylor was still standing next to. Normal caught onto what Hermie meant, and pushed Taylor aside to turn it down. The song was still going, so Lincoln paused it.
“Can I just skip my turn?” Lincoln asked, rubbing his temples.
“Nuh-uh, you’re not getting out of it that easily,” Taylor insisted. This time, Scary was in control of the volume. Lincoln, after learning from the prior situation, sang just a bit louder, though still mumbling the lyrics.
Once the song was over, Lincoln sighed a breath of relief and rushed back to his spot on the couch once he finished the last line of the song. The only person left out of the group to sing was Hermie. He strode over to the karaoke machine, opted to search for a song instead of scrolling through the list like the others had, and smirked to himself as he was about to tap his choice of song.
“Wait, don't start yet!” Taylor yelled. “I’m gonna go upstairs and grab the pizza first. I’m hungry.” While Taylor was upstairs, Scary went on her phone, her chin resting on her palm. Hermie stood in his place in front of the couch cracking his knuckles, taking a deep breath every few seconds. Fortunately, only a minute or two had passed before the group heard a door upstairs slam shut, followed by Taylor descending the stairs with two boxes of pizza in hand.
“Now, shall we get started?” Hermie spoke into the mic, looking down at his peers.
The flashy drums and guitar marked the beginning of ‘Love, Me Normally’, and Hermie stood completely still, his head facing the floor. In the second leading to the first verse, his head shot up, his demeanour completely different from when he was in the audience, now with a focused confidence.
Hermie started off singing in a hushed, mellow tone, his words carefully enunciated following the flow of the song. Normal looked at him in awe as Hermie looked off wistfully into the darkness of the back of the room, noticing every one of his small head tilts, as if he were posing.
“And I’d rather be normal, yes, so normal,” Hermie sang, and Normal gasped, his eyes wide. Hermie allowed his carefully crafted mask to slip ever so slightly, letting show an amused smirk as he went on with the song, though playing it off as part of the performance. Sure, it definitely was part of the act.
“‘Cause a normal human being wouldn’t need to pretend to be normal…” At this point, Normal’s face had begun to flush, eternally thankful that the room was dark, save for the dim lamp and karaoke machine’s colourful display.
“C’mon, c’mon, and love me normally,” Hermie finished the chorus, his head tilting up while holding the mic above his head in a more dramatic pose, looking ever so slightly towards the audience. Towards Normal.
Hermie’s body swayed to the music during the brief instrumental break leading to the second chorus, winding his shoulders and finger drumming in time. Then it was back to the smooth, characterised singing of the second verse. Normal couldn’t even focus on the words, all that was going through his mind was the ups and downs of Hermie’s voice, the tempo changing, the music accompanying and exaggerating every syllable.
“...This sentence ending with question marks, or dot dot dot,” He punctuated with finger guns and a wink directed at Normal. Normal’s quickened heart rate in any other situation would likely be concerning, though in this situation, one could say it was, understandably, to be expected.
The remainder of the verse, followed by the chorus, had Normal completely enraptured. The use of wording in the song being dedicated to him made his heart skip, and he could barely contain his smile. If he wasn’t already before, this boy was undoubtedly smitten now.
It was all a blur to Normal when Hermie sang something about talking to the audience. He watched as the theatre kid danced before him. Hermie looked down at the microphone cord as he curled it around his finger, and then glanced at Normal with a grin, still singing. Every new line that cascaded from Hermie’s lips drew Normal further into a daze. It was as if the other three people in the room weren’t even there, and Normal was only reminded of their presence when Scary slapped Taylor’s arm for stealing the piece of pizza she was about to pick up.
Towards the end of the song, Hermie was inching closer and closer to the audience, specifically Normal. It looked as if the action was unintentional. He bent down to Normal’s height on the couch.
“C’mon, c’mon…” Hermie placed two fingers at Normal’s jaw, sliding along it down to his chin.
“And love me…” Normal’s head was tilted up, and Hermie drew a heavy breath from giving one of his most personal performances yet. Normal’s heart was leaping out of his chest. Hermie’s eyes flickered down from Normal’s eyes towards his lips, licking his own and unknowingly leaned in even more. Normal’s eyes widened and his breath hitched from their closeness, frozen in place. To Normal’s disappointment, however, Hermie broke the spell, leaning back to stand up straight once again, removing his hand from Normal’s face. Not once did he break eye contact.
“Normally,” he sang, bringing the song to a close with a smile on his face and a hand reaching out. Only Normal was applauding, but it still meant everything to Hermie that someone appreciated his performance. Even more so that it was just the person he had dedicated it to.
Hermie opened his mouth to speak, but he was pushed aside, the microphone snatched from his hand.
“Move aside homosexuals, for it is time for me to sing the Pokemon theme song!” Taylor exclaimed. As Taylor began to look for the original version of the song (and not the reboot), Hermie approached Normal and sat down next to him on the couch. Normal couldn’t exactly tell if Hermie had actually sat down closer than before intentionally or not. The couch cushion sank next to him and Normal’s shoulders rose and he curled into himself slightly, putting his hands in his lap to avoid accidentally making contact with his crush.
While Taylor was busy singing, Normal caught a subtle movement out of the corner of his eye from Hermie. In that moment, he realised that the movement was Hermie glancing at him every once in a while. His head turned away from Hermie, and Normal could feel the familiar warmth of a blush making its way across his face. To Normal’s relief, the song was only short. Afterwards, everyone decided that they should start getting ready to go to bed. There were only so many party activities planned, after all, and the teens had gone through every single one of them.
~~
Normal had been trying to sleep for about an hour with no luck. Everyone else, from what he could hear, was asleep. He rolled over, sighing, and at the same time he heard a rustle coming from someone else's blanket across the room. The dark figure moved across the room towards the door, and slipped out quietly. Normal sat up in bed, mentally debating whether he might as well go to the kitchen to get a glass of water. Eventually, he decided to go, because why not?
When approaching the kitchen, the one thing Normal wasn’t expecting was to see the light already on - let alone Hermie sitting on the countertop above the dishwasher. Normal skulked into view, and Hermie looked towards him in surprise, a smile quickly appearing on his face. The two of them were silent as Normal took a glass from the cabinet, and began to fill it up at the sink. When he was done, he walked up to Hermie.
"Didn't expect to see you here," Normal said, raising his glass up to his mouth.
"Yeah, I couldn't sleep."
Normal chuckled. "Honestly, neither."
Their exchange turned into a conversation about their day, the party and the other teens' karaoke songs, and eventually they approached the topic of Hermie's song dedicated to Normal.
“I, uh, I liked your performance,” Normal said sheepishly.
Hermie exhaled, amused. “Why thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed it, Norm. I guess my target audience has been reached. And yours wasn’t so bad either,” he said sincerely. Normal chuckled quietly, directing his gaze elsewhere to hide his bashfulness. Hermie had finished his water and put it beside him on the counter, and Normal poured the remainder of his own into the sink. He held his hand out towards Hermie’s glass, and he passed it over.
“Could you please move your legs for a sec?” Normal asked, and Hermie obliged, tucking his legs up to sit with them crossed on the surface. Once Normal had put the glasses away, he stood back up, surprised to see Hermie almost face to face with him, smiling contentedly with his chin resting on his palm. Normal’s eyes flicked down to his lips and his heart felt like it was going to beat out of his chest. He turned his head towards the exit of the kitchen.
“We should probably head back soon in case we wake the others up,” Normal suggested.
“Yeah, good idea.”
Neither of them made a move to leave however. Norm hesitantly moved his head to face Hermie yet again. It was now or never. He took a shaky breath before he spoke. “Before we go back, could I ask you something?”
“Why, of course,” Hermie replied.
“Can I… Kiss you?”
Hermie was taken aback, his smile turned to a look of surprise. He drew in a breath and regained his smile, raising an eyebrow.
“I thought you’d never ask.”
Normal leaned in slowly, holding Hermie’s cheek. He could feel the warmth of Hermie’s face beneath his fingers, causing his own to grow impossibly redder. Hermie had only ever performed stage kisses before, so nothing could prepare him for the feelings that came with the real thing. Hermie tentatively put a hand on Normal’s neck, drawing him forward and finally closing the gap. Before either of them knew it, they were pulling away, both of them opening their eyes to greet each other once again.
“Wow,” Normal breathed, still feeling the adrenaline rushing through him. Hermie giggled softly, and offered a hand out to Normal.
“Back to bed?”
“Yeah, back to bed,” Normal smiled, taking his hand.
~
After everything that had happened in the kitchen, Normal was still struggling to sleep. He rolled over and squinted in the dark, trying to determine if Hermie was still awake, but couldn’t see anything.
“Hey Hermie,” he whispered, “Are you still awake?” Hermie hummed in response. Normal grinned to himself before continuing, “Do you want to sit up here and talk for a bit? I still can’t sleep.” The room was silent for not more than a couple of seconds before the rustling of blankets signalled Hermie’s movement. The pleasant shadow made its way through the darkness towards Normal’s bed, crawling atop and nestling in the blankets.
The two of them talked for a while about anything that came to mind, each letting the other ramble on about the things they were passionate about. Both of the boys found each other’s company to be the most comfortable they’d ever felt, and it didn’t take long for them to become sleepy.
When Normal was eventually half asleep, Hermie decided it was best to go to his own bed. However, he was stopped when a hand grabbed onto his wrist. “Stay,” Normal mumbled.
And so, Hermie did. Their shared body heat from sitting on top of the blankets had made the majority of the bed comfortable and warm, and he settled in next to Normal. Almost immediately, a mass of warmth attached itself to Hermie, and he felt Normal’s arm settling around his waist. He melted into the touch, and fell into a restful sleep.
In the morning, Taylor was the first one to wake up, followed by Lincoln, and then Scary. Taylor was getting impatient and especially hungry, so he grabbed a pillow and aimed it at Normal to wake him up.
“Wake up, sleepy head!” He shouted, while throwing. He missed, however, and the pillow ended up hitting Hermie right in the face. The noise was enough to awaken Normal, and his eyes fluttered open, his gaze landing on Taylor. Hermie, on the other hand, sat up and rubbed his eyes, groaning. It was a shock to the three other teens looking at Hermie in Normal’s bed, and Taylor screamed out of shock. Normal’s eyes widened at the realisation and he turned his head to look up at Hermie.
“Good morning, sleeping beauty,” Hermie said to him with a crooked smile and tired eyes.