Brittany likes to draw. She likes to color them in with crayons. Sometimes she just skips drawing with a pencil and goes straight to just coloring in crayons. Her older sister once told her that was silly because then how would you see where she was coloring. Brittany shrugged and kept drawing and coloring.

Pink for one duck and yellow for the other. Orange and red for the flowers, green for the bushes. The elephant's purple and the giraffe is light blue. The bunny is lime green and the squirrel is violet. Her grass is blue and the sky is the color of a cotton candy swirl.

It's a couple of days before Brittany's ninth birthday. Her crayons are just about all used up and she's colored all the fun pages of her coloring book. All that's left are the activities that she's answered and colored multiple times.

She knows she's getting new crayons and a new coloring book for her birthday. What else can she possibly want for a special day? Her sister picks on her and asks her why she would want crayons and a coloring book since those things are totally for babies. She shrugs and keeps coloring and drawing. When she gets done with all of her handiwork, she posts one of a monkey skiing on ice cream on the fridge and the one with the ducks in her back pack.

She doesn't care about having babyish stuff because she gets to give a really nice colored picture to her best friend Santana the next day. Santana always smiles and Brittany gives her a hug. Santana thanks her for doing something so nice to her and she just gives her another hug. She likes making Santana smile. It's one of the prettiest ones she's ever seen besides her mom's, of course.

The night before her birthday, Brittany tries to look around for her presents in her parents' bedroom. She only gets shooed away back to her room and told to wait tomorrow. Brittany walks back to her room and takes out a blank sheet of paper and draws with her nubs of crayons. She draws two triangle figures of girls, one with yellow her, the other with black.

It's Brittany's birthday and it's the greatest ninth birthday that she has ever had. She gets cake and pie with her ice cream, all of her friends from school to come to her party, presents from her cousins. But she's most excited for the fact that Santana is there celebrating this birthday with her. It really is the best.

It's time to open presents and all the children gather around her as she tackles the bows and the wrapping paper. Her friends get her some dolls, some clothes, and her parents got her ballet shoes for her dance class. Santana's present is last and Brittany can hardly contain herself. She holds the present in front of her, careful not to drop it or trip or anything. All Brittany can focus on is that Santana looks extra pretty in her bright pink headband and that shy smile.

"Happy birthday, Britt."

"Thanks, San!"

Brittany tears through the paper and opens a 64 count box of crayons with the sharpener in the back. Right underneath it is a giant coloring book of Disney characters.

Brittany leaps from her seat and gives Santana the biggest hug a new nine year old possesses.

Before anybody can say anything, Mrs. Pierce gets all the children to the kitchen to get their slice of cake leaving just Brittany and Santana.

"I hope you liked it. My mom and I took a really long time picking them out."

"I love it, San! It's the best birthday present ever."

The party is over and everyone's gone home except for Santana. Brittany finds Santana waiting on her couch. Her best friend looks up at her with a smile.

"What do we do now?" Santana asks. Brittany bites on her lip in thought. She smiles widely and runs away from the living room and into the dining room picking up some things from the table. She runs back out of breath and yells triumphantly.

"Let's color!"

Santana laughs and Brittany thinks this is the best birthday ever.

They kneel by the coffee table and open up the coloring book, looking through all the possibilities.

As Santana looks through the pages of the book, Brittany stops herself and looks at her best friend. "Thanks for my birthday present, San. It's my favorite gift."

Santana smiles and kisses Brittany on the cheek.

Yeah, best birthday ever.