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"Do I have everything for today?" Carly muttered as she check her list for what she called her "birthday lockdown" nothing was getting in or out of her self-imposed "Imprisonment" so long as she stays in the confines of the four walls she shared with Harper.
And speaking of her roommate, Carly thought it was the best idea to tell Harper to stay out of the apartment for the day, if only for her "own protection", the last thing Carly wanted was the possibility of anyone else somehow dying on her birthday.
"Like last year." The brunette thought miserably "Poor Albert."
Harper was all to happy to comply and decided to spend the day and most likely would spend the night at her girlfriend's place.
"Don't wait up!" was the last thing Carly heard from her best friend as she walked out the apartment. "Tinsley and I are going to have a blast!"
"Well, someone today should." Carly thought somewhat bitterly.
The brunette really wishes the birthday curse would no longer be an issue someday but experience so far has taught her that unfortunately was nothing more than wishful thinking and the better she came to terms with this misfortune would be better not just for her but for everyone she knew.
The irony of the wording was not lost in her and Carly couldn't help but chuckle, if only to make the day a bit more bearable.
"Well, enough fooling around, I gotta make sure I have everything for today." Carly said as she began checking everything on the list. "Ok let's see, some old DVD's that won't matter if they somehow catch on fire, check! Freddie's old lap top I borrowed for the day, check! My phone in the bottom of my drawer so I won't get any calls, check! Some junk food, several cans of wahoo punch and an apple pie to last me for the day? Check! An intimidating sign at the door that says "GET OUT OF HERE IF YOU WANT TO LIVE!"
Carly then noticed said warning sign was still on the coffee table.
"How on Earth did I forget to put hang that on the front door?" She asked confused. "That was first on the list!"
With mild frustration, the web show host grabbed the plastic sign, she opened the door and was about to set it up only to be met face to face with a pale woman with dark hair and green eyes who had her hand up, evidently, she was about to knock on the front door before Carly beat her to the punch.
Carly didn't know who this person was but she couldn't help but have a feeling of Déjà vu, as if she had seen this woman before, she just couldn't put her finger from where.
"Can I help you?"
"Carly Shay I take it?"
"Yeah?" The brunette replied uneasily "Who are you?"
"Jade West." The woman answered. "Can't say I'm surprised you don't remember me, we only met briefly over a decade ago, at Kenan Thomson's part, does that ring a bell?"
Without another word, Jade entered the apartment and sat down on the couch as if she owned the place.
"Um… kinda?" Carly said, shooting her unexpected guest an annoyed look. "Listen uh… Jade, I don't know why you're here but I doubt its to catch up on a one-night meeting from a high school revenge time, but this isn't a good time."
"Scared of the so-called birthday curse huh?" The Thespian grunted as she opened a can of wahoo and taking a sip from it.
This took Carly by surprise to say the least.
"Huh? Erh… What?!" She managed to say incredulously "How… How did you know about that?!"
"You and I share a common friend, Shay." Jade replied with a mysterious smirk. "One that sent me here, actually."
"Say, what now?!" Carly sputtered in sheer confusion. "You're not making any sense!"
"I beg to differ." Jade replied as she took a bite out of a sandwich from the table, "I think you know the leader of that biker gang that's been causing mayhem? What was their name again? Oh right… The Obliterators… What a lousy way to call themselves, if you ask me."
That's when realization sets in for Carly as her eyes widened in shock.
"You know Sam?!" Carly asked surprised. "Wait a minute, Sam sent you?!"
"I think I just said that." Jade replied somewhat annoyed. "Truth be told, she would have come herself today, she really wanted to surprise you, said she misses you a lot but unfortunately she got a bit indisposed at the moment."
"What does that even mean?"
"Long story short, Puckett got into an argument with an undercover cop and ended up giving him a wedgie and a banana cream pie down his pants and now she's behind bars, safe to say she wasn't going to be able to make it in time for your birthday since the rest of her gang was scrambling to get the money to pay for her bail, so she called me and as a favor she asked me to come and see you."
"Sam didn't ask you to pay for her bail?" Carly asked with a raised eyebrow.
"She tried but I shot that idea down right away." Jade replied bluntly. "I mean she kinda hurt my father-in-law and neither he nor my wife are pretty happy with her at the moment and to be honest neither am I."
"Yeah, I can understand that." Carly sighed dejectedly.
"At any rate once she calmed down, Sam asked to talk to me after the interrogation was over." The Thespian said with mild disinterest.
"Why you?"
"We crossed paths before while she lived in L.A." Jade replied with a shrug. "She probably believed a familiar face would be helpful for her case, I don't know and frankly I don't care for her train of thoughts."
"That still doesn't explain why you're here." Carly said.
"I'm getting to that!" Jade said in annoyance. "Puckett owes me big time for sending me all the way to Seattle when I could instead be home having dinner with Vega."
"Vega… Vega…" Carly mused "Why does that name sound so familiar?"
"Because that's my wife's maiden name." Jade answered bluntly. "You probably remember her, you two made a plan to humiliate some cheater all over the internet, Steven… Stephen, don't remember his name and I don't give a rat's ass about him."
"Oh yeah, Tori!" Carly said with a smile "How is she?"
"Mad as hell that I'm all the way in Seattle when I should be eating her right now!"
"Ok… Ew." Carly cringed. "Just a little bit more information than I needed to know."
"Whatever!" Jade sneered "Look, bottom line? Sam told me about this so-called birthday curse and how much she wanted to come and see you but that was not happening since the police department was hellbent on making sure she took responsibility for her actions and wasn't going to get a slap on the wrist just because she's a former internet star, in any case after much back and forth, we came to a compromise."
"Which was?"
"I promised to come here with a message on her part and in exchange, she accepts a plea deal, two hundred hours of community service, six months in jail and a public apology to the cop she attacked, you wanna bet which one hurt her the most to do?"
"The apology?" Carly asked knowingly.
"The apology." Jade confirmed with a nod. "Once she agreed to all that, Sam was allowed to make a recording so I could deliver it to you."
"Wouldn't it have been easier to send the message by e-mail?"
"Great idea!" The Thespian said sarcastically. "Except the police took her phone and they weren't about to give it back to her even for something as banal as sending a video, cops can be quite petty and vindictive when one of their own get humiliated, they don't let chiz go, don't worry, she'll get her stuff back once she gets released and given the circumstances, she had to use my phone to record her message."
To empathize her point, Jade got her phone out of her pocket, pressed a few icons on the screen and after a few seconds of searching, she made an "aha" noise and gave the phone to Carly.
"Here you go Shay!" She said as she took another bite out of her sandwich. "Enjoy!"
Carly pressed play and soon saw Sam's face; one she hadn't seen in years but would never forget… How could she? The blonde had been more than just her best friend; she had been the closest thing she ever had to a sister growing up.
"Hey Carls." Sam said with a sad, nostalgic smile. "Long time no see. Well technically I won't be seeing you but you can still see me, that still sorta counts, right?"
"Sure it does Sam." Carly said with a nostalgic grin.
"Ok, first things first, I'm sorry I'm not with you on you 'cursed' day." Sam said, using quotation marks to empathize her disbelief that Carly's birthday was jinxed. "I wanted to surprise you, I really did, kinda like when you did all those years ago when I lived in L.A. Do you remember that?"
"Kinda hard to forget, I was in a box for most of the time." Carly chuckled.
The former Goth raised an eyebrow once she heard that.
"Eh, not the weirdest thing I heard." Jade thought with a shrug. "Cat was stuck in a magic box once… What the Hell is my life coming to when hearing about people being stuck in boxes in not the weirdest chiz of the day."
"Anyway Carls, as Jade most likely told you, some unforeseen events happened." Sam said as she showed her wrist being cuffed. "And now looks like I won't see you like I was hoping, now first things first, don't you blame me being in jail on the birthday curse, this happened a couple of days ago, so no foul on your end, Shay."
Carly could hear the joke tone in the end and she couldn't help but chuckle.
"Sam knows me too well." She said nostalgically. "I really was about to blame everything on the curse."
The blonde continued with her message, breaking Carly out of her train of thoughts.
"Look, Cupcake, I know you may have had some rough birthdays, like the time your room burned down or when you chipped your tooth on a banana when you turned nineteen, or when someone mugged your Tamagotchi named Kuchipatchi or whatever his name was when you turned twenty four or the goat incident.
"What's this I hear about a goat?" Jade asked curiously.
"WE DON'T TALK ABOUT THE GOAT!" Carly bellowed madly; her left eye twitching uncontrollably as flashbacks of the incident came flowing in her mind.
Jade jumped the moment the younger woman screamed.
"Ok calm down!" The former Goth said. "A goat is not the worst thing in the world! Its not as if you got someone killed on your birthday."
Carly then lowered her head in shame, something Jade picked up on.
"Oh holy crap!" Jade's jaw dropped in amazement "Are you for real now? Someone really died on your birthday once?"
Carly only nodded.
"A fortune teller kicked the bucket on my birthday, last year." She admitted reluctantly. "Poor Albert."
"And I thought my birthdays were dark." Jade muttered in an almost jealous tone. "So.. Did you get to smoke in the fumes of this guy's soul?"
"What? NO!"
"What a waste of an opportunity then." Jade grunted.
"This chick is seriously twisted!" Carly thought. "What does Tori even see in her?"
Carly shook her head and instead continued seeing Sam's message to her.
"Carls, you may curse your birthday but honestly? For me, it has been the best day of the year." Sam said with a smile. "Think about it, if you hadn't been born, who knows where I would have been during our school years."
"Unfortunately, I know." Carly muttered, remembering the time she met an alternative version of Sam that ended in juvie without her positive influence that they not met.
"Cupcake, there's no denying that your birthdays haven't been the best but at least be thankful you're stronger as a result of what happened and lets nor forget some positive thing happened afterwards." Sam said pointing out. "Like when your room got redecorated or when we bought Vin Diesel together."
"Vin Diesel?!" Jade snaps in shock as she took a chug out of her soda, coughing uncontrollably afterwards. "Is she high?!"
"She was referring to a car we bough together." Carly clarified. "Sam just named it after the actor."
"Ok fine, that makes more sense." The former Goth said.
"All in all, Carls, you got plenty to be happy about." Sam said seriously. "Don't let one day a year let you down, bad things happen all the time, that doesn't mean it's the end of the world, I seen you get up from a bad birthday year after year, anyone else would have broken down but not you and that's pretty impressive and this is coming from someone who only beat down a truck driver with nothing but a carton of milk."
"You always know what to say to make me feel better Sam." The brunette though grinning from ear to ear.
"So, cupcake, do yourself a favor and don't fear your birthday, just say oh dear, another year and move on!" The blonde said "And one last thing, if by any chance you feel like visiting me in the next six months, I'll be in L.A State Prison, you can look up the visiting hours, hope to see you soon Carls.
And with that the video recording ended.
Carly gave Jade a grateful smile.
"Thank you for this." She said happily. "This is the best birthday present I could have ever gotten."
"Puckett must really, care about you for her to go through all that trouble just to be able to send you this video." Jade said.
"I guess she does."
"And look at it this was Shay, nothing bad has happened today." The former Goth pointed out. "So that birthday curse was nothing more than superstition.”
"I don't know about that." Carly said sitting down next to Jade. "But I think the curse is finally broken, I mean aside from you showing up unannounced, nothing bad has happened."
"What a compliment." Jade said sarcastically. "Mind if I grab a bit of your pie."
"Be my guest."
Just as Jade was about to have a slice of the pie, the front door was kicked open and a certain Latina barged in glaring daggers at the sight in front of her, not liking how Carly was sitting very close to her wife.
"YOU STAY AWAY FROM HER!"
To the surprise of everyone in the apartment, Tori then grabbed the pie and hurled it into Carly's face, the Web show Host was undoubtedly taken aback by this as she gasped in shock.
"Vega!" Jade chortled "Where did you come from? And what was that for?!"
Tori didn't say anything at first, she only grabbed her spouse's hand and said "That's enough time with the birthday girl! You're coming home with me! NOW! So gimme your wrist!"
The Thespian did as she was told and Tori grabbed her, but as the married couple went out the door, Jade had the half decency to at the very least give an apologetic smile as well as to quickly say "Happy Birthday, Shay" before they left.
Carly on her part blinked several times until she simply took a bite out of the pie that was dripping from her face.
"Well, this was still top three on my best birthday list." The brunette said contently.