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Birthday Party with the Hexsquad
“So, Gustober, any big plans for your birthday?”
Gus was over at the Owl House with Luz, Willow, Amity, and Hunter, doing homework. Now that multi-tracking was the norm rather than forbidden, parents and teachers encouraged the children to have a more well-rounded education. Luz was already taking all tracks, but Hunter, Gus, Willow, and Amity all chose one or two other tracks in addition to their originals. Since they were on the Flyer Derby team, Hunter, Gus, and Willow needed to keep their extracurriculars in mind when choosing extra courses.
Hunter focused on Potions and Abominations. Potions was something he could do without magic, and he had the patience and meticulousness needed for the track. As for Abominations, he initially felt weird about ordering a goop monster around when his whole life used to be about taking orders from someone else, but he wanted to have something in common with Darius, his new father, and make him proud.
Gus had taken a page out of Mattholomule’s, better known to the group as Matt these days, book and taken up Construction in addition to his original Illusions. There was something about physically making stuff he envisioned rather than just illusions of his ideas that scratched an itch he didn’t know he had.
Willow, as much as she appreciated Amity’s craft, refused to take up Abominations again even though Professor Hermonculous was fired at the beginning of the new curriculum. Instead, she chose Potions since she had the patience for it and could easily grow some of the ingredients she may need. Sure, that meant interacting with Boscha, but having Luz and Hunter around kept the bully away.
Because of her love for the library and stories, Amity took up the writing-oriented classes in the Bard track. She had initially assumed it was only music, but Raine quickly corrected her as an alumnus of the track even though they focused on the music side of it. The best part was her mother would have disapproved of her extra track, but she could no longer object since she and her father got a divorce, and her father won full custody of her and the twins.
The group of friends often had questions for each other about their classes that overlapped, so it just made sense to form a study group and do homework together. It worked most of the time, but there were occasions where Gus’s friends would get caught up flirting with their respective partner, or they would stray off topic. Like Luz was doing now.
Gus shrugged at the question.
“Probably the same as the past few years since meeting Willow. My dad and I invite Willow and her parents over for my favorite dinner. He and Willow get me presents, we have cake, and that’s it,” he said.
Luz frowned. “No big party? You’re turning thirteen, Gus. I don’t know about the demon realm, but that’s an important birthday in the human world.” She stood like she was making a grand speech. “Turning thirteen means you’re officially a teenager. One more year, and you’d be starting high school.” She scratched her chin thoughtfully. “Of course, you’re probably already there since you skipped two grades and you’re in classes with the rest of us. My point is things have changed a lot since your last birthday; you should do something different this year.”
Willow set aside her Potions textbook. “I agree with Luz. Everything is so different from last year. You don’t just have me as your friend anymore. You have Luz, Amity, Hunter, and the rest of the Emerald Entrails as friends now. If you wanted to have a slightly bigger party than just dinner, I’m sure everybody would come.”
“They’re right,” Amity added, looking up from her Bard notes. “Nobody’s saying you have to throw some big party and invite half the school. If you wanted to just hang out with a dozen friends and watch that Cosmic Frontier you and Hunter like so much, that’s fine too.”
Gus considered the idea and smiled to himself. “I do like Cosmic Frontier…”
“You should do it,” Hunter said, looking serious despite the light-hearted discussion. “Belos never let anybody in the Emperor’s Coven celebrate their birthday. You should celebrate every chance you get.”
Everyone else looked at Hunter with sorrowful expressions, reminded once more of Hunter’s terrible childhood. As far as guardians went, Belos made parents like Odalia seem reasonable. While she was a terrible parent in every other way, Odalia refused to let a birthday go uncelebrated if only so the Blights could show off.
“You know what?” Gus finally decided. “You guys are right. Things changed so much already in the past year, why not change how I celebrate my birthday too? Give me the weekend to talk to my dad and arrange something.”
Two weeks later, Gus was opening his front door to a whole group of visitors.
“Happy 13th birthday!” Everyone cheered.
Gus flushed at all the attention. “Aw, thanks guys! Come in! Plenty of room for everyone.”
His usual group of Luz, Amity, Willow, and Hunter passed through the entrance, all carrying a wrapped package. They were followed by King, Skara, Viney, Jerbo, and Barcus, each with their own gift as well. In addition to Skara and Viney being core team members of the Emerald Entrails, Jerbo had been recruited as an alternate player in case someone got sick or injured after the exhibition match against Professor Hermonculous’s team on Club Fair Day. Viney and Jerbo were a package deal with Barcus, so Gus got to know the canine student well too.
The Blight twins were next to come through the door; in addition to knowing them through Amity, they got along well from being in one of the same tracks at school. Not to mention they were all top students in that very track.
The last person to come through the door was Mattholomule.
“Hey, Matt! You made it!” Gus greeted excitedly.
Matt grinned at him. “After you crashed my birthday party several months ago, I figured I should return the favor.”
“Yeah, yeah, get in here.” After Matt passed him, Gus closed the door.
Gus had never seen his living room so full before, but he liked it.
“So, birthday guy, what’s first? It’s your party,” Luz said.
Gus grinned. “Since it’s my first real party, I was thinking human realm party games! First game, something called “Pin the Tail on the Donkey”! I don’t know what a donkey is, but is it really shaped like a key? And does it really have a removable tail?”
That was how the rest of the afternoon went. Luz had to explain that, no, a donkey was not shaped like a key and did not have a removable tail; she guided everyone through all the basic human birthday party games and corrected any misconceptions.
Several were bummed that Musical Chairs did not, in fact, include dancing chairs that made music.
After games were played, Gus opened presents. Since his dad usually got him a handful of presents and Willow usually brought one, he was slightly overwhelmed by basically doubling the amount of presents he received from all his friends.
Luz got him an encyclopedia so he could start learning what all the human realm had to offer. All his friends on the Flyer Derby team got him official merchandise. Amity got him some figurines from Cosmic Frontier that she needed Luz’s help to find. King gave him a signed copy of Ruler’s Reach.
“You wrote Ruler’s Reach?!” Hunter nearly screeched.
Luz tentatively raised a hand. “I kinda helped.”
“…You both are signing my copy later.”
As usual, his father Perry contributed a few presents to the pile.
Gus tore the wrapping of a small box and reached inside. From the box he pulled a well-aged wallet.
“Since you’re thirteen now, I figured you should have your own wallet.” Perry said, watching over the celebration and taking pictures. “My dad gave me that when I turned that age, and now I’m giving it to you.”
Gus turned it over in his hand before getting up to hug his father. “Wow! Thanks, Dad!”
“Now you just have to watch your pockets when you visit the Owl House,” King said from Luz’s shoulder. “Eda loves to pick a pocket.”
“As a reporter, I can confirm,” Perry grumbled. He ran into Eda many times since she dropped out of school, and most of those times ended with her taking his wallet then sprinting away before he realized she had taken it. Unlike victims she didn’t personally know, she always gave it back the next day.
Edric pouted from his seat next to Jerbo, an arm casually draped across his shoulders. “So cool that your dad is giving you his old wallet. I wish my dad would give me his.”
“Dad’s old one is covered in abomination stains,” Amity retorted beside Luz and King, “and so is his current one.”
“So?” Edric replied, not seeing a problem.
After the last present was opened, Perry brought out the treat everyone was waiting for.
“Who wants birthday cake?” He asked, well knowing the answer.
After everyone got their share and ate, Gus brought their attention to the last thing on his birthday schedule.
“Okay, I’ve saved the best part for last. The first Cosmic Frontier movie! Eda modified a DVD player that Luz’s mom hooked me up with so we could watch,” Gus said, holding up a DVD case.
It was a two-hour long movie, but everyone stayed through the whole thing. As invested as King was, his young body fell asleep halfway through. Luz, Amity, and the twins didn’t really see the appeal that Gus and Hunter did, but dutifully watched along with the rest. Matt, Skara, Jerbo, and Barcus were all intrigued once the plot got going, and by the end of it, they were making plans to get together soon so they could watch the rest. Matt was especially insistent on catching up on the rest of the series.
Once the movie was over, it was late and everybody had to leave.
“Night, Gus!”
“Happy birthday, Gus!”
“Welcome to the teen club, little man!”
Gus said goodbyes to each guest as they left his house. Luz shook King awake so he could wish Gus another ‘happy birthday’, and carried him out the door.
“Thanks, guys! See you at school!” Gus replied.
Matt was the last one to leave, his cheeks tinted red. “Finally, they all left. I had one more present to give you.”
Surprised, Gus raised an eyebrow. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
Before Gus could ask where the present was since he didn’t see anything in his friend’s hands, Matt darted forward and kissed Gus’s cheek.
“Uh, happy birthday and junk. See you when I see you.” Not giving Gus time to react, Matt hurried out the door.
Watching the last guest leave, Gus quietly held a hand up to the cheek that was kissed. Still processing what happened, he slowly closed the front door and stared at it blankly.
Behind him, his father stood with a teasing grin on his face. “Good birthday?”
Gus turned around, his gaze distant until a smile grew on his face.
“Yeah, yeah it was. The best one so far.”
The End