Ella's Birthday

It was 1976 when a large hole opened in the sky over Earth. The people of Earth didn’t have to wonder what it was for long, because soon enough, Earth made contact with the world on the other side. It was lucky for Earth that this wasn’t the first time this world had made interdimensional contact before, and in fact, there was a whole community of other worlds known as the Grand Narrative completely willing to invite Earth into its ranks.

         Several months of shaky and excruciatingly dull political negotiation later, another component of all this was introduced to Earth: Magic, a simple fact of life everywhere else, was now capable of being used on Earth.

         It’s been more than forty years since Earth joined the Grand Narrative, and thanks to a plethora of misinformation and mistakes, the people of Earth still have basically no idea what they’re doing with magic. People fairly regularly curse themselves by mistake trying to figure it out, so one magical research organization, the Blacklight Foundation, stepped up and introduced Fixers. Fixers are experienced wizards who act as magical tech support on Earth, fixing people’s magical problems when they have no clue how to solve it themselves.

         While there are countless interesting tales of Fixers and their exploits, regrettably this is not one of them, for this story follows a simple misadventure experienced by the Middlesex County Fixing Bureau in London, as they attempt to understand Earth culture for themselves.

         That’s London, Ontario, Canada. Not London, England. The other London.

It was November, the month of anticipation. In Canada, Thanksgiving takes place in October, and the next major holiday after that was whatever winter holiday you happened to celebrate. As such, November was a time of preparation for the Joy Festival, the catch-all term offworlders use for all holidays celebrated at the end of the year.

On calm days of anticipation like this, the county fixer, a tall, surly wizard by the name of Denji, would read his newspaper at his desk, while his teenaged foster son and handler of shop finances, Zach, would likely spend all day avoiding the incoming cold by using his technological magic to hide inside the computer, existing in cyberspace to stay warm. Rounding out the trio would be Denji’s familiar, a fairy cat named Nebula, who would lay about as any cat would on a cold day. November was normally a peaceful month for them, save for the occasional fixing job.

It was also the birthday month of the Bureau’s apprentice and part-timer, Ella.

Ella Masterson was in grade nine and had been working for the Middlesex County Fixing Bureau for almost three months. She was used to seeing the shop cat on top of the pop machine outside, she was used to thunder clouds potentially rolling in when the wizard she called her boss was annoyed, she was also used to said boss’s foster son popping up on a computer at the store or on her phone to tell her some mundane information about a new game coming out or fantastical information about a new job.

        “My birthday is coming up.” Ella had told Zach nonchalantly the day before.

       `“Oh yeah? When’s that?” Zach had asked.

       “Don’t you like, live in a computer?” the girl had laughed. “I thought you’d just check social media or something.”

      “I suppose so.” Zach had responded. He admittedly hadn’t though of that.

“It’s the twenty-first,” Zach explained from the old laptop he inhabited to a confused looking Denji. “Ella’s birthday is November twenty-first,” he repeated for emphasis.

“So?” Denji asked, raising an eyebrow. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“It’s Earthen tradition to celebrate birthdays, genius,” Nebula yawned from the corner. She was curled up on the heater, looking very much like a normal cat in a normal house, the fact that she was talking and wearing a large orange muffler aside. “At least in this country it is.”

“Why is that our problem?” Denji asked. “Wouldn’t she celebrate with her family or something?”

“Well, presumably yes, but I’ve tried reading up on this and it seems workplace celebrations and parties among friends also occur, often separate from the family celebration,” Zach continued.

Denji sighed. “Fine, what are we supposed to do?” he aked, putting down the newspaper he had been reading.

“Well, first things first, you have to wish her a ‘Happy Birthday’ when you see her,” Zach said, and Nebula nodded approvingly.

“Right, that’s simple enough,” Denji said. “And?”

“Well, it's also traditional to eat cake together,” Zach continued. “The cake should be the birthday girl’s favourite kind and have a candle in it for each year she’s been alive. She’ll blow them out and make a wish on them before anyone is allowed to eat it.”

“I’d hate to see how many candles Mr. Wizard here would have,” Nebula said with a snicker.

“Less than you,” Denji retorted.

Nebula rolled her eyes. “Touché, Mr. Wizard. Touché.”

“And lastly, anyone attending the celebration has to bring a gift for the birthday girl,” Zach finished.

“Like, a sacrifice?” Nebula asked. “I didn’t think humans still did that!”

“No no no!” Zach exclaimed. “A thoughtful gift, based on the person’s interests.”

“Ella has a lot of interests,” Denji said. “How do you even pick what to get her?”

Zach shrugged on the screen. “I dunno, but if we’re going to throw her a birthday party, we need to each get her something, and it needs to be a surprise.”

***************

The three agreed to hold the party on the day before Ella’s birthday, four days from then, and went their separate ways to decide on gifts. As soon as the shop was closed and Denji had gone to bed, Zach immediately began looking at Ella’s social media from his computer home, thinking he had something of an advantage over the other two in that he actually knew how to look up what other people were interested in on the internet.

“Let’s see here…” he muttered, knowing he didn’t really need to keep his voice down if the computer was muted. Something about pretending he could wake up Denji, or even Nebula, who slept outside on top of the pop machine she called home, with his late-night research made him feel a little more sneaky (and therefore satisfied) about what he was doing.

Ella’s profile on most sites was filled with mentions of shows she was watching, selfies of her on jobs with Denji, and pictures and conversations about all manner of video games and animated shows. Zach tried to filter through all the gifs and pictures to find some semblance of consistency between them, but there was a lot there. Eventually, however, he found a favourites list of some sort.

Zach groaned. The top of the list was HYDEOUT, some kind of trading card show with a mostly female cast. He couldn’t buy Ella any cards, anything he tried to order wouldn’t make it in time for the party, and it wasn’t like he was going to go outside and buy them himself!

Just when he thought he was completely doomed, he noticed another post.

“I wish I could play the HYDEOUT game only released in Japan, but my computer crashes whenever I open it…” Zach read aloud from a post Ella had made. He had seen Ella’s laptop, it was an older model hand-me-down from her sister, and it couldn’t possibly run a game like that.

“I think I know a way around that,” Zach said to himself with a grin, and started taking his research in another direction…

***************

The next morning, Denji woke up to find a sheet of paper in the printer he barely used. He picked it up and examined it.

“64 GB Micro SD card, 4.5 or lower firmware Nintendo…” Denji read off the sheet. “Hey Zach, what is this gibberish?” he asked.

“Oh, hey, morning,” Zach called back from the computer. “It’s a list of things I need you to pick up for me. I already got the finances sorted out and budgeted for it—aaah! Hey, no! Stay out of that file!”

Denji eyed the computer suspiciously. “Did you get a virtual dog or something?” he asked, and Zach shook his head.

“I’ve been up all night downloading and patching files for Ella’s birthday gift, seems a couple of trojans and spyware got in with the downloads,” Zach said with a sigh. “I’m trying to get them out, but in the meantime, could you run to the electronics store on Dundas and get that stuff for me? The people who work there should know what it is.”

“Yeah, sure, I guess. Just don’t break my laptop while I’m gone,” Denji said with a shrug, wrapping his signature red scarf around his neck.

“I assure you it’s no more broken than usual,” Zach said bitterly. Denji’s laptop was more than a decade old, and not in especially good shape from being used by someone who regularly shot lightning from their fingertips.

“Right,” Denji said, and then glanced out the window behind his desk at the pop machine outside, where Nebula typically slept during the day. “Where’s the cat? Isn’t she normally asleep out there at this time?” he asked.

“No, she left an hour ago. Said something about studying teenaged girls in their natural habitat,” Zach explained. “It’s a good thing she’s a cat, otherwise that would be an incredibly creepy thing to—HEY, NO, THE SYSTEM SETTINGS ARE NOT FOR YOU!”

“You might want to research a repair guy while you can, because I will most definitely not know what to do,” Denji said bluntly, and Zach gave him a look that made it clear he was not amused. Denji shrugged, then changed the subject. “Ella’s at school today, but she usually shows up around three after she’s done. You can occupy her while I’m out, I’m assuming?”

Zach nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure I can think of something.”

“Good,” Denji said with a nod. “I’ll be back around four or five.”

***************

Meanwhile, Nebula was ahead of both of them. Of course she was, she was a Fae and that made her almost like a god compared to them! There’s no reason a human wizard or a mere child should be able to outdo her at anything, including gift giving! Not that gift giving is something a chaotic being such as Nebula would normally be doing, but there’s a first time for everything.

Nebula had learned during her time as a cat that being little and unassuming wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Being big and intimidating was helpful in many circumstances, but other times it helped to be able to fit into small spaces and travel through crowds without being noticed. While she normally cursed having her default form as a cat in a world so much bigger than her, today was not one of those days.

Tail raised high, Nebula quickly weaved in and out of the crowds at Masonville Mall as if she was a fighter plane dodging bullets from all sides. While any old cat would normally be kicked out of a high-class mall like this, there were legal rules in place that animals who were magical enough to speak, and do so coherently, were to be treated with the same respect as any human customer.

Nebula wasn’t here to shop, though, she was here to observe and to interview! Having come to the mall frequently during her explorations of the city, Nebula knew that when teenagers didn’t want to go to school, they would go somewhere like this to “hang out” instead. She admired the rebellious spirit of those who defied society’s expectations of them to sit calmly and learn in favor of cheap thrills and fast food. Such tenacity! Such anarchy! She knew these young people would be kindred spirits to a chaotic being like her, even if they were still simple humans at heart.

Sure enough, standing huddled in a group not far from the mall’s smoothie shop was a group of five girls not much older than Ella, who had haphazardly tried to hide their school uniforms with their winter coats. They were laughing and talking with each other, some of them sipping smoothies. Giving a satisfied smile, Nebula walked right up to them and cleared her throat.

“Ahem. Excuse me?” she said, taking care to try and look as much like a normal, friendly, adorable talking cat as possible. The girls stopped talking and looked down at her, and Nebula waved with her scarf, an object she was entirely capable of moving around as if it were arms.

“Oh, what a cute kitty!” one of the girls, an auburn-haired girl with rectangular glasses, exclaimed.

“Weird scarf… Are you lost?” another girl with dirty blonde hair tied in a ponytail asked. Curiously, she was the only one wearing pants instead of skirt.

“Oh no, I’m not lost,” Nebula said. “I actually would like to ask a favor of you girls!”

“I’ll help if I can pet you!” the auburn-haired girl said.

“Why would you agree without knowing what it is? Maybe it’s dangerous!” a girl with long, straight blonde hair said.

“Oh, come on, that’s racist and you know it!” a short girl with frizzy brunette hair said.

“I want to pet the kitty too…” a soft-voiced girl with light brown hair said.

“You can all pet me!” Nebula said happily, getting ready to be smothered in pats and scritches behind the ears. “And it’s nothing dangerous! I have a human friend whose birthday is coming up. She’s turning fifteen and I have no idea what to get her as a present, though, and she’s the only teenaged girl I know! I was wondering if you could show me some places and things you like?”

“Oh, that’s simple enough, I guess,” the blonde girl said.

The auburn-haired girl put out a hand to Nebula. “Sure, we can help you!” she said with a smile. “I’m Bianca! The cautious one is Brina, little miss ‘I won’t wear the skirt uniform,’ is Ava, the small person with the frizzy hair is Angel, and the girl you can barely hear is Cosmo.”

“Did you have to introduce us all?” Ava said with a sigh.

“Yes!” Bianca exclaimed. “I’m the leader, don’tcha know?”

“She kind of is,” Brina said with a laugh.

Nebula smiled and put an end of her scarf in Bianca’s hand and shook it. “Thank you all!” she said excitedly. “Now, where do we start?”

The girls all exchanged a look and smiled.

“Well, if your friend is anything like us…” Angel said with a grin.

“Hot Topic!” Cosmo cheerfully exclaimed.

***************

It was around this time that, elsewhere in the city, Denji had arrived at the electronics store to which Zach had sent him. While he had his own appointments to make that day, it would be more than a little cruel to not run an errand for him. Zach had severe anxiety about going outside, and while he had gotten much better about it in recent years, he was still opposed to doing so and incredibly nervous and jumpy upon getting out there.

Said store was a little hole in the wall on Dundas Street, one of the busiest streets in downtown London. As with most small stores with small doors, Denji had to duck a bit to avoid hitting his head on the door frame. Looking around, he observed that the shop was basically one long hallway, the walls lined with DVD and game boxes which Denji himself could barely tell apart.

“Can I help you?” a bigger man with a dry tone and a bushy moustache asked from behind a counter against one wall.

“Yeah…” Denji said, taking out the sheet of paper Zach had printed for him. “I was sent to pick up this stuff for a friend,” he said, holding it out.

The moustachioed man squinted at the paper. “Well, the micro SD should be easy enough, but I don’t know the firmware on any of our Nintendo systems,” he said. “You’re welcome to check yourself, though.”

Denji grimaced. “I have no idea what any of that means, I’m just the delivery guy,” he said disdainfully.

The moustachioed man chuckled. “Well, I know someone who does. He repairs our second-hand stuff, and has a shop down on Wharncliffe.”

“Where on Wharncliffe?” Denji asked with a sigh.

The man took out a pen and quickly wrote down the address. Denji thanked him and left, failing to remember the low doorway and hitting his head with a cry and a grumble on the way out.

***************

Back at the house, Zach’s computer was overheating. In a panicked haze of what could only be called heat stroke, Zach tried to divert all the power he could to keeping the download he had been working on running before his program finally crashed and rebooted the whole computer.

“Wha… Oh no no no!” he exclaimed as he forced his way through the login screen and checked on his files. Sure enough, the download hadn’t finished.

Zach sighed. “Take twenty-three, I guess,” he said to himself. He really needed a better computer.

***************

         “Try this one!” Brina exclaimed, holding out a bright pink scarf with patterns of cartoon characters all over it. Nebula had accidentally let it slip that she could change her scarf for just about any long piece of fabric and use it as arms, so now that they had arrived at this “Hot Topic” place, the girls had taken to giving Nebula many scarves, as well as getting her to try on various hats and jewelry.

“I’m not sure it’s quite my style…” Nebula said, quizzically looking at the scarf from over a pair of sunglasses far too big for her little cat head.

“Yeah, she needs something more like this!” Angel said, walking over to the others with a spiked collar with tassels hanging from it. “Nebula is more hard core than a pink Mickey Mouse scarf!” she said with a grin.

Brina got up and put her hands on her hips. “And how do you know she’ll even be able to move that one? Those tassels aren’t strong enough for her!” she exclaimed.

“Yeah, well, maybe she doesn’t want to look girly and stupid either!” Angel huffed.

“And what’s wrong with looking girly, little miss still wearing the skirt uniform?” Brina said angrily.

“Don’t mind them, they’re always like this,” Ava said to Nebula, who nodded in response. She wasn’t complaining, having people fight over her was something Nebula somewhat enjoyed.

“Nebula!” Bianca called from across the store, beckoning the cat god over. Nebula quickly got up and weaved in between the arguing duo to get to Bianca.

“You said your friend was a mage, right?” Bianca asked, and Nebula nodded. Bianca gestured to a brightly coloured display. “These are all the rage with girls who like magic lately. Think she’d like one?”

Nebula examined the bright pastel and neon colours, and picked up a yellow box with her current scarf. “This…” she breathed. “…. Is so hopelessly optimistic and positive! She’ll love it!”

Bianca smiled, but at that moment, a ruckus unrelated to Brina and Angel erupted at the other end of the store. A man in a uniform was yelling at the other girls.

“Darn, security found us cutting this time…” Bianca muttered.

Nebula looked up at the annoyed Bianca and glanced at the security guard. She knew what to do.

“Let me handle this,” she said and walked over to the guard.

“Hey, wait!” Bianca called, following after her.

“Excuse me, officer?” Nebula said. “Have my students done something wrong?”

The officer looked at her. “Students?” he asked, still seeming skeptical.

“Yes, of course,” Nebula said. He still didn’t believe her, she needed to try harder. “My name is Ms. Nebula. I was in the middle of a lesson with these five young women when some prankster turned me into a cat with a cursed pen. He is at the principal’s office being reprimanded, but these five students kindly offered to take me to the pharmacy for an antidote spell.”

The security guard looked unimpressed. “Then what are you doing here?” he asked. She hadn’t convinced him yet.

“Well, it would be mean to take such lovely girls to the mall and not have a little fun, wouldn’t it?” Nebula said charmingly. “We were going to go to the food court after this and get a snack, but then we’ll be out of your hair,” she said, offering her sincerest smile.

The man seemed to accept this. “Right, carry on,” he said. “I’m sorry for bothering you, ladies.” He walked off soon after, muttering about needing a trip to the pharmacy himself.

As soon as the mall cop was out of sight, Nebula let out a sigh. “Oh, sweet cinnabar tainted shores, humans are so suspicious of everything…” she sighed.

“How did you manage that one?”  Angel asked incredulously.

“Lying is something of a specialty of mine, ” Nebula explained with a smirk.

“That’s so cool…” Cosmo murmured.

“Well, three cheers for Nebula then! Let’s go get that snack!” Brina exclaimed. The agreement was, for once, unanimous.

***************

         Denji arrived at the shop on Wharncliffe with a quick snap of his fingers and a ripple in the air. If you could teleport, you might as well, he thought. Upon walking in, it was a well-lit little business with computer supplies and wires lining the walls. Admittedly, Denji was always nervous around this sort of store because of how his electricity-based magic affected Earthen electronics. He had been responsible for more than a few explosions and overloaded desktop computers in his time. Zach’s presence was probably the only thing keeping Denji’s laptop from dying.

Walking up to a glass cabinet at the back that seemed to be functioning as a makeshift desk, Denji observed there was no bell to ring for service, nor seemingly anyone around, but a door to a back room was open. Reluctantly, he knocked on the glass cabinet a few times to try and attract the attention of anyone around. Surely, they would lock up the shop if they were away, wouldn’t they? After several more knocks with no response, a frustrated Denji tried to get some attention the only way he knew how.

CRACK!

With a muttering of some incoherent words and a finger-gun pointed at the floor, a small burst of lightning fired from his hand to the ground, leaving burnt linoleum floor in its wake.

“I’m coming! I’m coming!” a voice frantically called from behind the door in a dry tone. Sure enough, a familiar bigger man appeared from behind it, but with a thin moustache this time.

“… Weren’t you just at the store on Dundas?” Denji asked, confused by this, but also by the man’s nonchalant reaction to the lightning.

“I’ve never seen you before in my life,” the man said. “And I work at this store, not any on Dundas.”

Denji opened his mouth to speak, but decided his actual reason for being there was more important. “I’m looking for this stuff,” he said to the man, handing him the sheet Zach had printed out.

The man examined the sheet, then shook his head. “I just sold my last stock to the game shop on Hamilton. You should go there if you want it.”

Denji glared at the man. “You just sent me to this store only to send me to another store?”

“I told you, I’ve never met you. Also, you owe me twenty dollars for the burnt floor tile,” he said in his dry tone.

Denji rolled his eyes, handed the man a twenty dollar bill, and then teleported out, resisting the urge to make an obscene gesture at the man on the way out.

***************

Zach was floating in darkness. This was the end, he thought. He had finally reached the end of his virtual life. So many things he would have liked to do… Eat more ice cream, for one. Maybe get a girlfriend. But no, all that was over now. He was dying.

“Goodbye, cruel world…” Zach muttered as dramatically as possible.

“I’ve never seen you so melodramatic! What’s wrong?” a voice called to him. With an audible gasp and a few clicks, the world lit up for him again and he could see Ella giving him a concerned look through the camera on his shack of a computer.

“What have you been downloading?” Ella asked. “The antivirus software was going nuts before I told it to clean things up!”

“…Stuff,” Zach said in an embarrassed tone, unwilling to ruin the birthday surprise.

“…What kind of stuff?” Ella asked, before gaining a quizzical expression. “You don’t mean like….”
Zach stiffened.

“… cat videos or something?”

Zach paused and was about to correct her, frantically say that he’d never engage in such low internet culture as cat videos, but quickly saw an opportunity. “Yes. Cat videos. Cat videos you probably don’t want to look at, because you probably don’t want to get caught looking at them at work,” he said as convincingly as possible.

Ella laughed. “I mean, whatever floats your boat. Don’t let Denji catch you either, okay?” Zach nodded and went back to work as Ella went to go take inventory.

Zach breathed a sigh of relief as she left the room. He had incriminated himself, but it was for the greater good.

 ***************

That evening, around five forty-five PM, a very annoyed Denji burst through the door and dropped a bag in front of Zach’s computer home.

“You would not believe the moustachioed hell I went through to get this,” he growled. “You owe me.”

Zach gulped. “…k,” he murmured, unable to think of a better response.

Denji whipped around to Ella, who was kneeling in front of the gemstone rack, examining the stones.

“Y-yes?” Ella asked nervously.

Denji sighed. “You can go home for the night,” he said, forcing calmness. “We’re closing early.”

Ella nodded and rushed out, barely stopping to grab her coat. From her perspective, everyone was acting very strangely today.

***************

“So, what’d you folks get her?” Nebula asked smugly when she returned that night. A very worn out Denji was hunched over his laptop, trying to carefully follow Zach’s instructions about what to do on a handheld game system in his hands.

“We’re not supposed to share, I don’t think,” Zach said. “Okay, now put the SD card back in the computer,” he instructed Denji.

“Is the SD card the little chip or a file?” Denji asked reluctantly.

“The chip, Denji,” Zach sighed.

         Denji glared down at the netbook. “Why aren’t you doing this yourself, anyway? You have a room and a computer.”
        “Because I’m still cleaning up the inside of this computer,” Zach replied matter-of-factly. “Now come on, put the chip in.”

Nebula hopped up on the desk, examining the system in Denji’s hands. “Well, you certainly didn’t buy this for yourself, old man,” she sneered.

Denji rolled his eyes. “This one's Zach’s. I just had to go through the hell of picking it up.”

“You’re not supposed to give it away!” Zach exclaimed.

“It’s right in front of her. She’d figure it out herself,” Denji said, gesturing to the handheld.

Nebula smirked. “Doesn’t she already have one of these?” she asked. “I see her play it on breaks all the time…”

“Well, that’s what you think,” Zach said with a grin. “But she doesn’t have one like this!”

***************

And so, after a few days of frantically hiding any trace of presents, the day of the party arrived without many hitches. Zach was still perpetually embarrassed about the cat video incident, although nobody but him could understand why, and Nebula kept sneaking out to go see her ‘club,’ as she somewhat ominously put it. Denji had decided he really didn’t need to deal with any of this, and focused on refining his gift for the big day.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had red velvet cake…” Denji mused, bringing a cake he had bought the day before downstairs.

“I have, although it was back home.” Zach laughed. “Now isn’t really the time to muse about that though, we’ve gotta prepare!”

Denji nodded, setting down the cake next to three boxed gifts. He took out fifteen brightly colored candles, placed them in the cake’s cream cheese icing, and began rapidly snapping his fingers with one hand and muttering.

“What are you doing?” Nebula questioned, and he held up a finger with his free hand, beckoning her to wait.

Sure enough, a moment later, as if his hand had been a box of matches to strike, a small flame ignited on the tip of Denji’s index finger. He looked satisfied with himself.

“Careful not to set off the smoke detectors,” Zach said as Denji lit the candles one by one. “Now, when she comes in, we all have to shout—”

“Surprise?” A confused voice asked from behind them. Turning around, the group saw that Ella had walked in and was in the midst of hanging up her coat. “Did you guys throw me a birthday party?” she asked.

There was a pause, and then Zach blurted out, “Ihaven’tbeenlookingatcatvideosIswearIwasjustillegallydownloadinggamesforyou!”

Ella blinked. “I didn’t catch any of that, but thanks, you guys!” she exclaimed happily.

Nebula patted a distraught Zach’s computer on the back with her scarf. “Cat videos? You find any of mine?” she asked with a smirk.

The evening went fairly well from then on. Zach’s gift was a modified handheld game system, one that could play games downloaded to it, but more importantly, could run Zach’s program for multiplayer. It didn’t take long for the discussion to derail from thanks to wondering if this was even remotely legal, but Ella was thankful nonetheless.

Nebula’s gift was a yellow stone necklace with a charm for good luck carved into the back of it in an old offworld language, apparently quite popular with young girls who loved magic nowadays. While it was quite well-liked, Denji almost immediately confiscated it to check for malicious enchantments, claiming he didn’t trust the manufacturers. He would discover in the coming weeks that it was about as magical as any rock on the street. Curiously, however, the box came with a brightly decorated card signed by five girls Ella had never heard of….

“All right, we’ve done ours, time for Mr. Secretive to show us what he has planned,” Nebula said with a smirk, as Denji came back from delivering the necklace to his study.

“It’s nothing special,” he said with a shrug, reaching for the brown paper-wrapped box he had placed on his desk earlier. “You should probably let me open it, though.”

Ella tilted her head in confusion. “It’s not dangerous, is it?” she asked.

Denji gave her a deadpan look. “Do I look like I’d give you something dangerous for your birthday?” he said, then paused. “Actually, don’t answer that,” he said flatly as he ripped the paper off the box.

“Is that…?” Ella said, craning her neck to see the box.

It was a small grey box decorated with shining silvery wind patterns, like the kind you’d see in a Japanese animated show. In the centre of it was a window showing the contents: a card featuring a brightly clad animé girl with dark hair, a solemn expression, and a billowing red scarf. Above the window was the bold, shining title of the game: HYDEOUT.

Denji looked at the box, and then took a sticky note off the back and adjusted his spectacles. “Ella… I challenge you… to a duel?” he read off it, then shrugged and looked at her. “If you’ll teach me how to play, anyway, the game shop people weren’t much help.”

Ella stared for a second, but soon was smiling broadly. “Really? Honest? You’ll play HYDEOUT with me?” she asked excitedly.

“Eh… sometimes, sure,” he said reluctantly, realizing he may have just signed away a lot of his newspaper time to a simple game. “I don’t know, I just figured you could teach me about your area of expertise for a change.”

Ella’s eyes lit up. “Oh man, this is going to be so much fun! And you picked Snow White’s deck, that’s so cool!” she exclaimed, looking between the girl’s solemn look and Denji’s somewhat resigned expression. “She kind of reminds me of you. Look! She’s got a red scarf too!”

Denji himself did not see how a real person could look like something as exaggerated as an animé character, but he did admit that the red scarf was what caught his eye about this ‘Snow White’ character. In less than five minutes, Ella was giving Denji a breakdown of the rules, with Zach serving to google any questions they had and Nebula napping on the leftover wrapping paper. Cake was eaten, good times were had, and the night carried on until Ella received a call from one of her fathers to go home. She admitted that for a brief moment, she felt like she did playing HYDEOUT with her sister, and swore she wouldn’t let Denji get out of occasional card game nights from then on.