Main Bonus #52: Luna's 9th Birthday (Lily Calloway) (Patreon)

IMPORTANT: Please do not screenshot and post any part of this bonus scene to other sites or share with non-patrons. All of the Patreon content is exclusive to Patreon and for current patron's eyes only.  Thank you!! xoxo Krista & Becca

RESOURCES:  Check out this narrative timeline graphic to visually see when this bonus scene takes place.

MUSIC: we listened to "Forever" by DNCE  while writing this bonus scene.

THE SCHOOL PICK-UP line at Dalton Academy is pure hell today, but I carry on thanks to my warm cup of coffee and my burgeoning excitement. My morning was spent taping balloons to the interior car roof and tossing confetti on the backseat, something I will regret tomorrow when I’m vacuuming it out.

Right now, I’m on a high.

A birthday high.

Luna is turning nine today, and as always, she’s requested a dinner and then later tonight Eliot and Tom will come sleep over. Nothing fancy. No themed get-together with the entire extended family. No trip to Build-A-Bear or an amusement park. Her simple request just makes me want to work harder to make the mundane more special today.

When I get closer to the main pick-up point, I see Eliot and Tom sitting on the bench, as stiff as can be. A teacher stands near them like they’ve been scolded for being rowdy. Ben’s inspecting a potted plant a few feet away, while Luna holds his hand. Their bodyguards hover close.

All four elementary kids accounted for.

I take a deep breath. It’s going to be a good day.

My car rolls to a stop, and I roll down the window. “Hi!” I wave, trying to get Luna’s attention. She’s staring at her sparkly sneakers, worn alien and galaxy stickers stuck to them.

The teachers recognize me and start ushering Eliot, Tom, Ben, and Luna to the car. When Eliot opens the door, he says, “Whoa!” His eyes pin to the balloon roof while he hops inside.

“So cool,” Tom says, scooping up a handful of confetti on the seat.

“Happy Birthday, Luna!” I exclaim.

She’s unusually quiet as she tosses her bookbag onto the seat.

Ben’s the last one in line, and I unbuckle to help the six-year-old into the car, but his bodyguard is quicker than me and helps Ben.

One of the teachers approaches my window. Ms. Adams, I think. Or maybe she’s Ms. Ashley. I can’t remember exactly, but she looks like one of the teacher aides. A clipboard is tucked underneath her arm and little apple earrings sway as she says, “So we had an incident, I’m afraid.”

An incident.

My stomach drops. And I know, I just know, this is about Luna. It’s the way she’s barely acknowledging the confetti while Tom and Eliot pelt each other with handfuls like they’re in a confetti war.

“An incident?” I ask, feeling protectiveness fire up inside of me. “What kind of incident?”

“You’ll notice there’s some gum in Luna’s hair.” The teacher is quick to add, “She put it there herself.”

“Nah-ah!” Tom calls out, a pissed expression on his face.

The teacher gives him a stern look.

He rolls his eyes and huffs.

Eliot whispers quietly to his brother, also shooting Ms. Adams/Ashley a stink-eye.

“Luna wouldn’t put gum in her own hair,” I snap.

Ms. Adams/Ashley lowers her voice. “She told us she did it. Look she’s…a bit odd. But I wanted to give you a heads up. As a courtesy.”

A courtesy?

My blood boils.

I don’t want to start accusing anyone before I have the facts, and maybe the teacher is right, maybe Luna did admit to it. But I’m more likely to believe my daughter is covering for someone. “I have to go,” I say curtly. “I have a birthday to get to.”

“Yes, we sang Happy Birthday to Luna at lunch,” she informs me with a kind smile. They’re not all bad, Lily, I try to remind myself. If this school administration really was neglectful and cruel, I would have pulled my kids out already.

It’s just the other students and parents here who usually make things difficult.

I give Ms. Adams/Ashley a nod and roll up my window, drowning out the school chitchat. As I leave the parking lot, the kids’ bodyguards trail my car in a security vehicle.

“Aunt Lily,” Eliot calls out. “It wasn’t Luna.”

“It was,” Luna pipes in, her face beet-red. “I did it, Mom.”

“She’s just trying not to get Jeffra in trouble,” Tom explains. “Because she thinks she’ll be even meaner to her.”

Luna doesn’t say anything, and that’s when I know Tom and Eliot are right. I can’t see Luna’s knotted hair, and I’m just hoping it’s only one piece of gum I’ll need to cut out.

“Jeffra will be mean no matter what,” I tell Luna. “You should have told the teachers the truth.” I regret the words as soon as I say them.

Luna’s face flushes even redder like she’s holding back tears. My gut sours. It feels like I caused an incursion—where one universe destroys another.

“But you know what, it really doesn’t matter,” I tell my daughter with a big nod. “Jeffra shouldn’t have done that it the first place, and your dad and I will sort it out. Only happy thoughts on your birthday from here on out.” I glance into the rearview.

Luna mimics my big confident nod.

I smile. “You excited for your super special sleepover tonight?”

“Yeah, Luna,” Eliot hugs an arm around her. “We’re going to have so much fun.” He blows confetti out of his palm, and she cups her hands to catch the sparkly bits.

“Only the most fun ever,” Tom adds with a fist pump.

Luna sniffs to force away more tears. We meet each other’s eyes through the rearview when she asks, “Is Farrow coming to the dinner?”

Farrow Redford Keene.

The eighteen-year-old son of Dr. Keene. Luna has grown attached to him. It’s the tattoos, Lo has guessed. She likes art. She has a creative soul.

It might be that, but I also think maybe she likes that Farrow doesn’t fit in the mold she sees around her. She feels a sense of camaraderie in that, and so she asked if she could invite him to her birthday dinner. I extended the invitation, and Farrow said he had a prior obligation. I’m sure he wasn’t feeling like a nine-year-old’s birthday is high up on his to-do list since he’s in Yale.

However, the look in my daughter’s eyes, sheer hope that he’ll be there, it gets to me.

I cave.

“Yeah, he’ll be at the dinner.”

She smiles. The first time she’s smiled since I’ve picked her up.

What the fuck have I done?

“You what?” Lo looks at me like I’ve tossed away all our X-Men comics. It’s inconceivable, really.

I hold a spatula and a funfetti cupcake, half-frosted with lime-green frosting. After trying to use peanut butter, vinegar, and vegetable oil to remove the sticky pieces of pink gum from Luna’s hair, I only made a bigger mess.

Luna was so patient, too. Never even complained when I accidentally tugged too hard.

Lo already called Jeffra’s parents, and we’re now at real odds with the Yanktons who profusely stood by the fact that their perfect angel did nothing.

Jeffra’s father is a big butthole. I even said it to in front of Luna, and I have no regrets.

Problem: he is a high-level executive at Rochester Industries, and he has the money to stay here and enough power that he’s not so threatened by Lo.

In the end, I had to cut the two clumps of gum from Luna’s hair. I think she’s much happier now that the whole process is over, so I try not to chart this under Lily’s Parenting Failures.

She’s watching TV in the living room with Xander and Kinney, and she didn’t shed a single tear when she saw her new haphazard haircut. Just shrugged and darted off to be with her siblings.

Luna is so resilient that I wonder if she’s secretly Colossus and Kitty Pryde’s love child. Like she’s both made of steel and can effortlessly phase through material. But then I remember she’s just our kid, decidedly human enough to get picked on by mean girls in school. It makes me want to protect her even more.

“I did it,” I tell Lo.

He blinks. “You promised Farrow Keene would be here tonight. That is what we call a lie, and not in any Hufflepuff handbook I remember.” He points at me. “Hufflepuff title revoked.”

I gasp. “No.”

“Yes.” He takes another spatula out of the drawer to help with the cupcakes. Pizza from Tony’s Pizza, Luna’s favorite pizza parlor in Center City, should be here in an hour.

“You should have seen her eyes, Lo,” I explain. “She was so upset, and this one thing made her so happy. And I’m still not done trying to get Farrow here.”

I have called him twice and left a voicemail pleading my case.

“He’s a student at Yale,” Lo reminds me. “If he’s in Connecticut right now, which he probably is, he’s not going to be able to make it. So what do we tell her then?”

“Maybe we can FaceTime him?” I say, hopeful.

Lo lets out a long breath and then his phone buzzes on the counter. I watch him abandon his cupcake to glance at the text. “Fuck.”

I wince. “More bad news?”

“Moffy texted. The swim coach is making them stay late for extra laps. One of the kids mouthed off today.” He looks up to me. “Not him, obviously. He’s a true Hufflepuff.”

I gasp at the second shot at my ‘puff status. “Take it back, Lo.”

He opens his hands. “It is what it is, love.”

I slug his arm. “Take it back.” Did I whine that? Ugh, I kinda did. It’s been a day.

He rubs his arm with mock hurt. “Ow. When did honey badgers get so strong?”

I begin smiling. He’s calling me the animal that represents my Harry Potter House. Thus, admitting I am a Hufflepuff. I’ll take it.

“Will Moffy make it to dinner?” I ask him. Luna will want him there, and if Farrow and her brother don’t show, it’ll feel like an even bigger let down.

“He doesn’t know,” Lo says.

“This is like one of those X-Men crossover events where everything goes wrong.”

Lo pockets his cell. “Yeah, but someone always saves the day in the end.”

“Usually Jean Grey,” I say. “And I’m not her.” I set down a frosted cupcake, and Lo comes to my side, placing a hand on my hip. His comfort calms me down.

“You’re right, you’re not her—”

“Thank you,” I say.

He pinches my cheek lovingly. “You’re you. So when things work out, it’ll feel even better because you don’t have telepathic powers aiding you. Plus, we’re in this together Lil. We’ve already delt with the family from hell, and tomorrow, I’m calling the school. We’ll get more details about the gum incident and why we weren’t called immediately when it happened.” I didn’t think about that point until Lo brought it up when we got home. I was just so concerned about how Luna was handling it all.

I glance towards the living room. I can’t see it from here, but the sounds of light sabers and ray guns from the TV are noticeable. “I just don’t want her to look back and think about her ninth birthday as this epic failure.” It could so easily go that way.

Lo squeezes my hand, and I see the same fear in his eyes.

And then my phone rings.

The caller ID: FARROW REDFORD KEENE.

Thank you so much for reading this month's main bonus scene! It's a blast from the past, and a look at nine-year-old Luna Hale. We LOVED getting to write this moment. It's one that we've always thought about since Maximoff mentioned early on in the Like Us Series that Farrow went to Luna's 9th birthday. BUT this scene is hardly over. You will be getting Farrow's POV of Luna's birthday tomorrow morning as the extra bonus scene. Keep on the lookout! 

xoxo Krista & Becca

"Luna's 9th Birthday (Lily Calloway)" Copyright © 2022 by K.B. Ritchie