Marie awoke in the morning, peculiarly to no alarm clock. Her day hadn’t even started yet before she had made her first mistake. She wrestled all three of the blankets she used to keep as cozy as possible off of her, and sat up, not entirely aware of the fact that she would usually be at the studio by now. Her eyes blinked a few times and subsequently opened wide in shock as the idea that she may be late suddenly came into perspective. Attempting to make her way out of bed to get a good look at the time and idea on how much exactly of a blunder she had made, her struggling only made the horrible conglomerate of sheets on her bed pull her back. It was as if they had become so acquainted with her at this point that they knew what she truly wanted; that is, to go back to sleep. A tangled Marie did manage to find her way off the mattress, but only with a large thud on the floor. Her second mistake of the day.
   With a slight sense of accomplishment, Marie’s triumph melted into relief as soon as she saw the digits on the clock: 10:27. She slumped back into her blankets. Now it was too late to make a difference, whether she rushed to work or not. She wouldn’t even have to change from her T-shirt and shorts! Marie would just have to call in sick, and tell Callie that she was stuck with a fever all day, though perhaps it would be better to simply tell her that she didn’t feel like going; Lord knows that Callie would insist on making sure she knew everything, and there were a million things Marie would rather be doing on her feigned day of recovery than have Callie shove a thermometer down her throat while fretting over “her poor cuzzie”. Though she enjoyed the extra attention during her actual bouts of illness, she knew from experience and disappointed looks that she wouldn’t be getting any over a faked cold.
   Still, Marie thought to herself why exactly she had been in bed for so long. How could I let myself sleep so late? She usually didn’t forget to set her alarm clock; rather, her problem would be more along the lines of sleeping through it. But whenever that happened, Callie was quick to ensure she didn’t get even a moment’s extra rest. Wait a minute. As the early bird, wasn’t it basically Callie’s job to make sure that she was awake? Marie passed the fault to her cousin, or, more like convinced herself that it wasn't her own. How could Callie let me sleep so late? It would have to be not only a reason to oversleep, but also one that Callie would let her stay in bed for… it was especially strange, considering Callie hadn’t even tried to wake her up yet, only to have Marie pull the blankets over her head and tell the ever-peppy pop star to get out of her room, as she did on their vacation days. Putting this all together, it begrudgingly hit Marie after a moment of denial:
Today was her birthday. That’s right. One more year she had been on this flooded planet. Something that was, at least, according to Callie, an extra special day that means you’ve gotten through an entire 365 days of challenges and fun! (Marie stuck her tongue out and gave her best Callie impersonation.) Callie would even discuss at length how great it was that it basically meant everyone got their own personal holiday, whether you were rich, poor, famous or unknown. Marie, on the other hand, couldn’t even come close to understanding why in the world it was something special. A year in itself was completely arbitrary, after all - the fact that Earth’s position in relation to the sun had gone through an entire cycle hardly had any effect on how unique a particular day was, especially when the date itself hardly mattered: If Marie had been born on the 18th or 20th instead, would she really be any worse for wear?
   Oh well. If she had to pick any day for vacation, as she had undoubtedly done earlier that year, she could at least pick a day that made Callie happy to do so (and promise her not to wake her up). Marie heard an unintentionally loud knock at the door, and her cousin’s voice could be heard throughout the room, though uttering only a single word: “Marie?” Marie gave her response quite instinctively:
“Yes?” Her third mistake.
   After her near-instant response, her first thoughts were that Callie was probably trying to see if she was awake, and her first feelings something of regret. These were near instantly confirmed when the door swiftly opened, and-
POP! FWOOOOOOOOOOT! The sound of thunderous party favors echoed throughout the house. Remnants of what was no doubt a confetti popper scattered around the entrance, and Marie, who had already been startled up by the popper, was not in any way reassured by the streamer.
“Happy birthday, Marie!” Callie exclaimed as she boldly paraded into the room. She had a wide, toothy grin plastered on her face, although most of her face was hidden by her Groucho glasses (which Marie exclusively referred to as “funny glasses”). Dropping the party favors, Callie threw her arms up into the air as if to congratulate. Congratulate what? Marie pondered, wishing that said congratulations could be cancelled in favor of slouching back into bed. The fact that I made it through another 52 weeks without wandering into traffic?
“Callie, you… really went all out with festivities this morning, didn’t you?” Marie let out a sigh, and reluctantly tried getting on her own two feet. Last year, Callie had walked into the room opening one of those stupid electronic birthday cards; those were annoying, but at least not ear-piercing. “I can get up myself, thank you very much,” she declined to the offering of Callie’s hand.
“Of course I did my best to go all out!” Callie would not have her smile impeded by any grumpiness on Marie’s part. “You know how important your birthday is, right?”
“Not really,” Marie yawned. It’d be a while before she really woke up. As jealous as she was of Callie’s ability to instantly be awake on any given day, she couldn’t bear the idea of not experiencing the wondrous feeling of getting to crawl back into bed.
“Well, it’s a good thing I know for you, then!” Callie giggled, but Marie could only roll her eyes. It was, in terms of energy efficiency, the best and simplest way to display slight contempt.
   Marie bounced onto the white sheets of her bed, letting her legs hang off, and let her chin droop, supporting it with her upright arm. Gazing at Callie, she braced herself for whatever “surprises” her eager yet misguided cousin could have planned for the day. Might as well start it out with something good.
“So, since it’s my birthday, that means you have to do stuff for me, right?” Marie inquired. Though she hated the general festivities of her birthday, what she did appreciate was the privileges that came with it: She could lay in bed all day, once Callie’s gift bonanza had taken its course; for the most part, idiotic responses nonwithstanding, she could sleep in for once; and though Callie’s maternal criticism never did much to stop her, at least she wouldn’t have to hear it.
“I do stuff for you all year round, Marie!” Callie showed off one of her golden smiles. Marie couldn’t particularly argue against those words or that face, even if the latter was accompanied by those stupid spiral glasses. Which reminded Marie that that was a situation that needed rectifying as soon as possible.
“Fair enough. For starters, though, you can lose those clown glasses…” Marie relaxed and shifted her arms into cupping her nape. “I wanna see those pretty eyes of yours.”
“Aw, you know how much I love the beaglepuss!” Nonetheless, she took the compliment and giggled. “But it is your birthday!” Folding her glasses into her pocket, Callie murmured something about the two of them really having the same look; but Marie paid no mind as her bright, golden eyes came into sight once again. Callie folded her arms behind her back, and took a few steps closer to Marie. “That reminds me! I planned out a lot of stuff to surprise you this time!”
“I think you’ve surprised me enough already…” Indeed, keeping Marie from her beauty sleep was, to her, the cruelest prank of all.
“Better surprises! But anyways… don’tcha know what you get first for your birthday?” Callie leaned forward, staring straight into Marie’s eyes.
“Uh…”
“Birthday hugs!” Callie gleefully announced, and quickly pulled her arms away from her behind to throw them over Marie’s shoulders; she snugged her head into Marie’s neck and let it sit there as the two of them held their embrace for a while. As Marie was sitting down, it was a bit hard to reciprocate, and so she had to awkwardly stretch her arms over Callie’s torso; truth be told, it would have been ideal if Callie had surprised her after waiting for her to stand up first. But she didn’t mind too much, because oh man Callie hugs were the best, even if they also happened to be birthday hugs. Callie cooed and may have even planted a few kisses on Marie’s neck, while Marie to no avail searched for a good place to reciprocate them on Callie’s at the moment standing, bending body. After perhaps a little too long, the two of them separated at last. Marie decided it was a high time to actually get up, and managed to return the favor through a kiss on the cheek.
“It’s only fair,” she smirked. Callie was tempted to retaliate with a kiss on the lips, but decided against it, and instead only smiled and laughed; as fun as kiss wars always were, there were other things that had to be done today.