The First Present

Emilia wakes up two hours before her alarm sounds. She squeals with excitement, 'today's the day!' She hops out of bed and takes her time in the shower, making sure to shave all the important areas. She turns off the water, covers herself in a towel, and walks out of her bathroom.

She opens her closet and looks around for her special birthday outfit that she had bought a month in advance. She spots the plaid white dress and pairs it with her black and pink biker jacket. She picks out a pair of white combat boots, another item she purchased in advance.

She gets dressed in a flurry of movement and then goes to her vanity mirror to begin preparing her hair and makeup. She groans with annoyance as she hears a knock at her door. "Come in!" She shouts while looking through her arsenal of beauty products.

Winston enters her bedroom and whistles. "Damn sis, you look amazing." He says with affection. "Hehe, thanks but why are you here so early?" She asks curiously, finally looking over to her brother. "I'm here to help with your hair. A day like this deserves a special hair do, wouldn't you agree?" He asks casually while picking up a comb.

"Hmm, you style my hair better than I do.. Alright, I accept!" Emilia says with glee. Winston quickly gets to work, starting with removing her tangles and moving onto braiding her hair. Emilia looks in the mirror as he finishes.

"Oh my God! It's amazing! Thank you Winny!" She squeals happily and hugs him. "Haha, no problem. Though it didn't take much since you always look amazing sis." He says before leaving the room.

Emilia smiles at herself in the mirror, admiring the beautiful black and amber extensions that her brother had braided into her hair to make it look longer. She finally snaps out of it and begins her makeup, adding white glitter around her eyes and some sparkly pink lip gloss.

Satisfied with her look, Emilia walks out of the room and goes downstairs. She hears two of her brothers trampling towards her position and waits until the last minute before swiftly moving out of their way, causing them to crash, once again, into the front door.

Cedric growls, "come on Em, don't you ever get tired of the same old routine every day? Just stop moving out of the way." Emilia smirks, "funny, I was about to ask you the same thing. Don't you ever get tired of bashing your head into the door and getting yelled at by mom every day?"

Timothy and Winston snicker from the sidelines, "Dammmnn." Cedric snorts, "joke's on you sis, mom isn't here to yell at me right now." As if summoned, their mother shouts from the kitchen, "Cedric! You have five seconds to get in here and explain what that noise was! So help me, if you're out there breaking my door again… "

Cedric gulps and glares at Winston, "you said she wasn't home!" Winston gives an innocent smile, "did I? My bad, I guess I was wrong." He shrugs, grabs Emilia's hand and walks away smoothly. "You little traitor! I'll get you for this!" Cedric shouts before wincing at his mother's angry growl, "Time's up Cedric!"

Winston and Emilia chuckle victoriously as they walk away. "Where are we going today?" Emilia asks excitedly. Winston winks, "you'll see when we get there, birthday girl." She grumbles under her breath but gives up. Her brother is too stubborn to push for more. Winston laughs at his sister's pouting face. "Just be patient. I promise that it's worth the wait." He adds.

For approximately fifty minutes, the siblings walk in silence along a trail that Emilia had never seen before. Winston humming to himself happily, suddenly stops and grabs a blindfold from his pocket. He reaches his hand towards Emilia with the dark cloth but pauses when she growls and glares at him with suspicion.

"Haha, relax." Winston chuckles at his sister's reaction. Emilia visibly relaxes and allows Winston to tie the blindfold around her face, covering her eyes so she can't see anything. "Now just grab my hand and trust me." Winston's voice sounds close to her ear. Emilia grumbles but does as instructed. She uses her other senses to try and figure out where he was taking her.

What felt like an eternity to Emilia, but was actually only ten minutes, Winston stops once again. Emilia sniffs the air for a hint but the only scent she catches is that of her brother. Finally Winston removes the blindfold, it takes a moment for Emilia's eyes to adjust but when they do, she stares in awe at her surroundings. "You're free to run as far as you'd like." Her brother says before shifting and taking off. Emilia looks around at the huge redwoods and plots of those beautiful indigo flowers for a moment longer, taking it all in.

After a few minutes she shifts and runs off to catch up to her brother. Finally, she could stretch out her wolf's legs for a reasonable amount of time without having to sneak out. Emilia runs until her legs feel as though they're about to give out from underneath her. Spotting a nearby river, she decides to take a break from running and jumps into the sparkling water.

A loud splash, followed by two other splashes, snaps Emilia out of her euphoric state as she spots her brothers popping their heads out of the water's surface. "You're late." She teases. All three of her brothers get mischievous grins on their faces as they start inching closer to her. "W-what are you guys doing? No no, stay away from meee!" She shouts as she turns to attempt an escape. Her attempt proves futile as all three of the large males jump on top of her simultaneously.

Emilia's head pops back out of the water as she coughs and laughs, "you're all evil! You know that? Pure evil! What if I had drowned?! You nearly killed me! On my birthday too!" Winston splashes her in the face. "Don't be so dramatic, if we wanted to kill you then we would've simply body slammed you into the water." He says casually. Emilia feigns shock and appall, "you guys did body slam me! Are you saying that you were really trying to kill your precious sister?!"

Ced chimes in, "Precious? Since when? Last I checked, the only sister we have is a spoiled rotten brat." Emilia growls and tackles her oldest brother back under the water. Winston and Timothy decide to watch the two with amusement while making comments to each other. "I got fifty bucks saying that Emilia wins." Timothy says while arching his brows at his older brother. Winston bellows with laughter,"I got two hundred saying that Ced forfeits while claiming that Em cheated." The brothers shake hands and continue watching their siblings.

"Hey!...I h-..heard that! Why is nobody on my side?!" Cedric whines between coughs and being repeatedly submerged under water. "Because we all know how you are. You start a fight with her and then lose in one way or another and accuse Em of cheating or come up with some excuse about how you were having an off day." Winston shouts back.

After twenty minutes of rough housing, Ced forfeits. " Listen, that wasn't a fair fight. Emilia obviously cheated! I mean I'm the older brother, there's no other way that she could've beat me." He says accusingly. "Called it." Winston chuckles while Timothy glares at Cedric, "you couldn't have just let her beat you? Why did you need to go and forfeit like that? Now I'm down two hundred dollars!"

Emilia ignores her bickering brothers as she gets out of the water and climbs into a nearby tree. Winston watches her with curiosity. "How's it hangin?" He asks with a goofy grin. "First off…no Win, just no…And secondly, all good up here. Just enjoying the view and my freedom.' Emilia responds back while closing her eyes and leaning her back against the tree.

"I'd join you, but as you know, your brothers are lacking in the tree climbing department." He laughs. "Just go hangout with the other brutes. I'll behave and just relax up here for a bit." She says in a relaxed tone. Winston shrugs and walks over to his brothers.

"Alright, that's enough guys. Tim, go get the decorations setup. Ced, go ask mom if the cake and snacks are done." Winston whispers. Ced tilts his head, "and what will you be doing? Sure sounds like you're trying to boss us around while you laze about." Winston feigns hurt, "how dare you?! I was giving you two easy jobs and taking the most difficult one for myself. But alright, have it your way. You can take my job."

Ced starts to feel nervous as his eyes waver slightly, "and uh, what's your job exactly?" Timothy fails to stifle his laugh as he responds in Winston's place, "Win's in charge of Emi. Or at least he was but if you're swapping jobs then I guess that means that you'll be in charge of watching her and then convincing her to return home. Most likely having to chase her down in the process. Last I checked, isn't Emi faster than you?" Ced doesn't stop to reply before taking off. "Wimp." Winston scoffs.