Happy Birthday to You (Birthday Trilogy, Book 3) by Brian Rowe Page A

magical story about how my mother gave birth to me after being
inseminated just three days prior, but such wasn’t the case. As far as I know,
having powers doesn’t change a thing when it comes to having children.”
    I nodded, and then asked the most
important question of all: “Would our kid have powers?”
    “Possibly,” she said. “Don’t worry about
it so much.”
    I sat there for a minute, trying not to
freak out. I needed to close my eyes and calm my head, which, surprisingly,
hadn’t exploded by now. “Don’t worry about it so much? Leese, we could
potentially be bringing a child into a world that has been completely
destroyed! We could have a little mini witch! We could be having a baby who
shoots lightning bolts out of his ass when he needs to take a dump!”
    Liesel put her hand up in the air. “Stop.
First of all, we wouldn’t be having
anybody. I would. Second of all,
we’re not going to bring our child into a decimated world, OK? How many times
do I have to tell you? We are going to stop this, all of this, and our child
will be born into a world filled with love and hope and two of the most bad-ass
parents of all time. Think of it, Cam. Our son or daughter will be only twenty
years younger than us. When she’s graduating high school, we’ll still be in our thirties ! The three of us will be
best friends!”
    “Yeah, or the kid will hate us even more.
My parents are pretty young, and I’ve always had issues with my dad.” I put my
feet up on the dash and turned toward Liesel again. “You just referred to our
child as ‘she.’”
    “Huh?”
    “A minute ago. You said ‘she.’ Do you
know something I don’t?”
    She shrugged. “I don’t know. My mom had
three girls. Her mom had four girls. I just naturally assumed I’m going to have
a daughter. Why? Do you not want a girl? Do you think two girls in your family
may be too much for you to handle?”
    Liesel just kept on talking, and I kept
right on not listening. Something she had just said made me want to strangle
her. She had slipped out another secret. I was getting tired of all these secrets.
    What
else about Liesel don’t I know? I’ve probably only scratched the surface. There’s probably a hundred things about her that would
surprise me. When will she come clean with me? For good?
    “Leese?”
    “What?”
    I stared at her for a moment. “You just
said your mom had three girls.”
    “Huh?”
    “Just now. You said three. Not two.
Three!”
    “Cameron, there’s a cop up ahead. Damn
it! I told you to keep an eye out for any cops!”
    Liesel promptly slowed down, from
eighty-five to sixty-five, right before we passed a cop on a motorcycle who appeared to be itching to ticket the next passers-by.
Thankfully the cop didn’t come after us.
    “Please, Cam. We can’t get pulled over.
We can’t let anything wreck the plan.”
    “Will you please answer my question?” I
was trying not to yell.
    “What? Oh, I meant two.”
    “Do you have another sister I don’t know
about?”
    “No.”
    “Are you lying?”
    “Yes.”
    I leaned forward and started rubbing my fingertips
against my aching forehead. “There’s another witch?”
    “She’s not a witch.”
    “What? Why not?”
    “You’ll see.”
    “I’ll see?”
    “Yeah. We’re meeting her in twenty
minutes.”
    I didn’t know whether to be mad about
Liesel keeping this from me, or sad that she felt she needed to, or ecstatic
that I had a new sister-in-law I didn’t even know existed.
    “Can you at least tell me her name?” I
asked.
    “It’s…”
    “Yes?”
    “Yolanda.”
    I had to take that one in for a moment. “ Yolanda ?”
               

 
    MRS. GORDON

 
    Walking through the quiet, eerie halls of
Caughlin Ranch High didn’t fill Lolita Gordon with the positive energy she had
been hoping for. Passing by the desecrated lockers and classroom doors didn’t
make her nostalgic for a time when life’s outlook wasn’t so damn bleak. Mrs.
Gordon