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Ricky had honestly just planned for a normal day. He wasn’t thinking of anything extraordinary- he was far too resigned to being treated like he wasn’t there to be looking forward to some kind of huge celebration.
Apparently, he was in for a surprise because as soon as he made his way outside the choir room a very excited Penny rocked on her heels to greet him. At the sight of him, she seemed to barely contain her energy and threw herself at him in a hug, giving a very cheerful, “Happy Birthday!”
He almost fell over, and Penny looked incredibly guilty about it. She was naturally very anxious and she tended to spiral more often than not if she thought she did something wrong.
“Sorry!” She blurted out, “I’m just- so excited - I don’t know what birthdays are like here so-!”
Ricky gave her a fond smile and pat her shoulder reassuringly, and she dropped them from where they’d been raised.
“Sorry, sorry. The choir’s still doing some stuff in there so they sent me out so I wouldn’t blab!” Penny explained cheerily, and Ricky noted she seemed to be in one of her good moods.
He vaguely knew of her taking medication for something, he heard it from her brother, in fact, but it seems that she might have stopped taking it or switched considering the pep in her step.
‘They sent you out?’ He signed, amused, and he could practically see Penny deciphering the signs in her head.
“Yup! But I get to talk to you before they give me the signal to bring you in so it’s fine by me!”
Ricky quirked an eyebrow, amusement unable to be kept out by the cheery demeanour of his fellow choir member.
Just as Ricky raised his hands to sign again, the door opened and Ocean stood at it, looking incredibly satisfied with herself.
“Ricky, come on in! We did a bit of redecorating-” She said as she ushered him in, and Ricky found himself in the choir room with more than a bit of redecorating.
The ceiling had streamers that flowed down, and on the collapsable table, there were a whole variety of cupcakes and cakes. Even the chairs and the piano had been redecorated, streamers and stickers placed all over it- which if he were to guess, were either put there by Constance or by Penny.
“Happy Birthday!”
The rest of the choir popped out from seemingly nowhere, startling Ricky as he flicked his gaze from them, to the food, and to the decorations.
‘For me?’ he signed weakly, disbelief on his face.
“Of course, it’s for you!” Ocean huffed, patting him patronizingly on the shoulder. Ricky had half the mind to shrug it off, but he decided Ocean probably wasn’t intentionally being patronizing this time- it was just her vibe.
Constance gave Ricky an awkward hug before offering him a cat cupcake. Ricky leaned into the hug before sitting down carefully, moving his crutches to lean against the wall as he began eating the cupcake- even if he did feel a bit bad for eating the cute kitties frosted on.
Mischa sat next to him and clapped him on the back, offering him an opened bottle of beer whilst Ocean was distracted. Ricky snorted and took a sip, pulling a face as he handed it back to the Ukranian boy.
Noel then took the seat next to Ricky, handing him a DVD case. On the front was some kind of old film, the tragic ones that Noel liked, and his lips quirked up in a smile, offering a fist for Noel to bump.
“How come he gets fist bump for DVD and I don’t get fist bump for beer?” Mischa complained, and Ocean's head whipped around so fast Ricky was worried it was going to fly off her head.
“BEER?!” She screeched, storming over and snatching the bottle from Mischa, who scowled at her.
“It’s birthday!”
“We’re not nineteen yet, Mischa! You shouldn’t even be able to get this!”
As the two bickered, with Penny and Constance trying to intervene, Ricky felt a smile creep up on his face.
So much for being resigned to a normal day, then.