I'm a terrible person, and I am so sorry for making you guys wait so long. Please forgive me.

Chapter 12: SURPRISE!

(First Person P.o.V.: TSUMI)

I wake up to feel the late afternoon sunlight streaming onto my face. Normally, I would've grunted and flipped over so I could get a few more hours of sleep, but not today. Not when I know that today's going to be a wonderful one! I mean, sure, Fuuto's living with us (ew), but not even his presence could stop me from wreaking chaos on my birthday. Matter of fact, I might as well make him my first victim! And besides, it April Fool's, I'm sure my bandmates must've told him to be on his guard today. With this in mind, I roll off bed and start humming as I grab what we called the Legality Shirt (which was just one of Ryan's baggy shirts that he happened to be wearing on his eighteenth birthday, but no one needs to know that) and my usual pair of dark jeans before I head into the en suite bathroom to take a shower.

Twenty minutes later and I'm headed to the dining room/kitchen (mainly because we always eat there instead of the actual dining area) and I don't think I've stopped humming. Eh, it's my birthday, they'd let me do what I want, as long as it's legal and/or won't land me in jail.

"Morning!" I chirp, smiling as I walk in. Aria waves from where she's eating a bowl of cereal and Kyle nods at me from his spot on the counter. "Is Fuuto out today or something?" I ask, immediately noticing the lack of annoying pop stars in the room. Aria shrugs while Kyle smirks.

"He said he's got a surprise planned for his-and I quote-'favorite sister'." Kyle says, and I think he's trying to look mysterious, but he only ends up looking creepy. Incredibly creepy.

"Aww," I frown, disappointed that I wouldn't be able to prank him. Aria picks up on this and smiles.

"You can rig his room while he's gone though. And may I suggest green dye in his shampoo?" The image of Fuuto with green hair is enough to send me into a laughing fit and soon, the disappointment of him not being my first victim fades away. Honestly, what would I do without my band mates?

"Okay, so we've placed a whoopee cushion under his comforter, put puke green hair dye in his shampoo, added glitter to his conditioner, rigged his closet door to cover him in water-soluble glue and feathers, and put plastic wrap to prevent his body wash from coming out. Anything else we can do?" I ask, surveying Fuuto's room for anything that might make him the slightest bit suspicious. I decide to fix his comforter a little bit, seeing as Aria pulled it taut and made the whoopee cushion's outline a little too obvious. Satisfied with that, I turn to the twins with a grin.

"Make it rain confetti on him when he comes in." Kyle says, holding up a party popper from the prank supplies bag we brought with us. Aria grins and holds up a bottle of glue.

"Make it stick to him!" She added, grinning maniacally. I return their mischievous expressions with one of my own.

"Wanna do it Rube Goldberg style?" Aria was already pulling out string and a small pack of dominoes while Kyle started conceptualizing it.

"Okay, this should do it." Twenty or so minutes later, we were finally finished rigging Fuuto's temporary bedroom with an overly-complicated prank. And not a minute too soon, considering we heard the tell-tale click of the front door being opened, which meant that Ryan had finally returned. The three of us left my step-brother's room as carefully and quickly as we could so that we didn't set off any of the pranks before the intended recipient got hit with them, and thankfully, they stayed in place.

"Hey Ryan!" The twins went back to the kitchen, probably to get something, so I was left with welcoming Ryan back from wherever he went off to. He smiled and pulled me into a hug.

"Happy Legality, Tsumi." He said, holding me out at arm's length. "Can't believe that you're not drowning in that shirt though," Ryan adds, snickering. I scowl and punch his shoulder.

"It's only knee-length on me! And besides, it's really comfy!" I protest, but I know he's just teasing. Man, how on earth did I get so comfortable with them and not with my stepbrothers? Oh wait, that's a stupid question; my stepbrothers already have Ema, what use would they have for Mitsuki?

"Well, better get dressed," Ryan ruffles my hair with a grin, "Because I hear Jesse's got a surprise for you." I frown at that, mainly because I was already dressed. And also, Fuuto didn't get pranked yet!

"But this is me being dressed!" I whine, pointing at the shirt and jeans. Ryan shakes his head before dragging me off to my room.

"I mean get dressed for a fancy restaurant." I groan at that. "And last I checked, baggy shirts and jeans aren't part of the dress code."

"I don't even have a single fancy outfit." Ryan smirks, opening the door to my room to show me the white box nestled on top of my Slytherin bed sheets.

"Think we didn't prepare for that?" He teases, nudging me towards it. I sigh and reluctantly open it, hoping that it was actually something I could use even outside special occasions, and also, that I'd like the color.

"Whoa," I say, staring at the dress laid out on my bed. The good news is, it's a color that I like, which is black. Also, the dress was short and sleeveless, which is another good thing, seeing as it's summer and we live in LA. I run my fingers through the fabric and grin. "It's so soft!"

"Knew you'd like it." Ryan says, smirking. "Now get in the shower so you can put this thing on, yeah? Kyle and I still have to put on something decent, ya know." I nod, and he leaves. Before I go to take another bath, I take one last look at the dress and smile. Hey, maybe this birthday wouldn't turn out to be a debacle like the last one I celebrated.

Remember what I said about liking the dress? Well now, I'm not sure how I feel about it since I had no idea that it was backless until I put it on. I mean, the dress is pretty, and it's super comfortable and easy to move around in, but the fact that I'm exposing most of my back to the world isn't something I'm comfortable with. Seeing as Aria and Ryan were probably put on dress shopping duty, I'm guessing the design was more of Aria's choice than it was Ryan's (but I don't know his fashion choices that well). I roll my shoulders a little and look at my closet. Well, they never said that I couldn't wear a jacket with this thing... With that in mind, I make my way to my closet to rifle through it. I'm sure I have a white leather jacket that I never got to wear before.

"Hey Tsumi, you ready to go?" Oh shit. I rush through my jackets, trench coats, and hoodies until I finally see a flash of white. I snatch it off the hanger and tug it on right before Aria walks in.

"'Sup." I say, grinning as I spread my arms wide. "What do you think?" She gives me a once-over and pouts.

"Aren't you gonna take the jacket off?" Shit shit shit shit.

"Erm, maybe when we get to the restaurant?" She sighs.

"Well, that's better than you not taking it off at all, I guess." But then she holds a pale green pouch up. "But that's not why I'm here. You're wearing makeup tonight, and you can't say no!"

"Eh," I shrug. "Fair enough." The gleam in her eyes almost makes me worried for my safety, but she knows me too well to do something I wouldn't be comfortable with, so I let her work some cosmetics magic on me.

"Well, what do you think?" Aria steps back to show me my reflection and holy shit there is no way I could be the person I see in the mirror. No fucking way.

"That is not me." I deadpan, pointing to the mirror. "You said you were gonna put make up on me, but I'm pretty sure this isn't makeup, it's plastic surgery." She chuckles, reaching over to show me the stuff she put on my face.

"It's just some concealer, eyeliner, mascara, and lipstick."

"You're joking. Concealer shouldn't be able to make me look like a different person."

"It should, especially since your under-eye bags are the only thing that I put concealer on."

"What." Aria smiles, pulling me out of the chair and out my room. I couldn't really say anything because, oh right, I was too busy trying to wrap my head around the fact that she only put concealer under my eyes and nowhere else. Hell, I was so wrapped up in trying to understand that that I didn't even realize we were already in front of Kyle and Ryan.

"Did she get plastic surgery or something?" Kyle asks, and Aria stares at him in disbelief. "What?" He continues, raising his hands up in surrender. Ryan just chuckles and hands Aria a ten dollar bill.

"Well, now that the lady of the hour is here, should we get going?" At that, my stomach rumbles, and I have to say, the prospect of food is more than enough to make me forget about how I look like I had plastic surgery because of where Aria put concealer.

"Tsumi!" Jesse pulls me in for a hug when we get to the restaurant. "Happy Birthday, munchkin!" He says, grinning as a waiter leads us to well, not a table, but a private room. Oh boy, I have a bad feeling about this, but I brush it off. It was just a feeling, not like anything would happen, right?

"Thanks, but I'm hungry, so can presents wait until my tummy is full?" He chuckles and pulls out a chair for me.

"Can you wait just a little while longer? I want you to see your surprise before we eat."

"But I'm hungry." He smiles.

"Hi Hungry, I'm Jesse." Cue the groans from my band mates.

"Tsumi, why did you have to give him that damn joke book?" Kyle moans, and I laugh, high-fiving Jesse.

"Aww, you can't really say that it wasn't punny, Kyle!" I tease, and the others just groan again.

"You two just love hurting us, don't you?" Ryan complains.

"Nah, we just like puns. But seriously, what are we waiting for?"

"A surprise. Now can you please be a little patient? Please?" I huff, but relent.

"Fine. But I call dibs on the biggest dessert portions." The others scoff, and Kyle puts me into a headlock where he proceeds to give me a noogie.

"You always get the biggest piece of dessert. Even when it's not your birthday." He snaps, releasing me from underneath his arm pit. Surprisingly, he didn't smell like something crawled up his sleeve and decided to die in there. It was certainly a nice change. We all talk for a while longer before Jesse excuses himself to take care of my surprise. I wonder what they got me though; I don't think anything can beat the restored 1967 Chevy Impala they got me for my 17th birthday. Unless they somehow found a way to bring my favorite fictional characters to life, that is.

"Close your eyes, Tsumi. Wouldn't want to spoil your surprise too early." Ryan says, holding up a handkerchief. I shrug and comply. I can handle the suspense for a few more minutes. He takes my hand and makes me stand up and turn around, and I can distinctly hear several pairs of feet moving. "You ready?" He asks as his hands come up to untie the blindfold. I nod, and when I open my eyes, I was definitely surprised. But not in the good way.

"SURPRISE!" Standing in front of me are every single one of my stepbrothers, from Wataru to Iori, heck, even the busiest siblings (Masaomi, Ukyo, Louis, and the triplets) are here. I just stare at them, my jaw slack, before looking over at Jesse and my band mates.

"What." I gesture to my stepbrothers as I try to figure out an explanation since they weren't giving me one.

"Onee-chan!" I nearly fall backwards when Wataru hugs me around the waist with a blinding grin on his face. "Are you surprised? It was Fuu-tan's idea to bring us here!" Fuuto. Of course it had to be his idea, the guy just loves to make me miserable. But why the hell would Ryan, Aria, Kyle, and Jesse agree to this?!