Surprise Party
By Kaelin

A car stopped at the side of the road, but neither of the two persons inside got out. They were waiting for something. A few minutes past as their attention suddenly was caught by a door opening up in the house close to where they had parked their car. A lion stepped out, turning around to lock the door behind him, giving a small nod as he rattled the doorknob to check if it was locked, and it was.

"There goes Bauske.." Kaelin said, smiling wide while he saw the lion walk away over the sidewalk. Both Kaelin and Ryo waited until the lion walked around the corner at the end of the street. "Let's get out, the coast is clear." Ryo nodded and quickly opened the door of the car, getting out. Slowly they walked towards the door, ocasionally having a look towards the corner of the street.

As they stood in front of the door Ryo felt inside of his pocket, letting out a small grin as he felt the cold metal of the key which he quickly took out, holding it up in the air. "Hah, I still got it. The spare key of Bauske's house." He said as he let the key slide into the lock, a soft click being heard with the unlocking of the lock. Ryo pulled the key from the lock, laid a paw on the doorknob and as he twisted the knob he pushed open the door, providing them acces to the home of their friend's house.

With a few steps they got into the livingroom of the lion's house, where they immediately sat down on the couch. Ryo took off his backpack and placed it on his knees, opening it and taking out a small cellphone which he handed over to Kaelin. "Will you call Dutchfox?" He said as Kaelin took the phone from him. Then Ryo reached into the backpack once again, getting out a small piece of paper with all the things they needed to do listed on it.

Kaelin took the cellphone from Ryo and quickly dialed the number of the fox, bringing it to his ear. He waited patiently, and after a short while someone picked up the phone. "Hello? Dutchfox? This is Kaelin. Ryo and I are in Bauske's house, so you can pick up Sparks and come over here too. Don't forget to bring the things on the list Ryo mailed you, ok? Good, we'll see you two when you arrive. Bye!" He nodded with a smile and laid down the phone on the table right in front of the couch he was seated on. "Dutchfox and Sparks will be coming over as soon as they have bought the things you told them to buy." Kaelin said as he looked over to Ryo, who was already walking around the room, looking how they could decorate it the best.

"Kaelin, could you get the ingredients for the cake out of the car?" Ryo asked as he sat down on the armrest of the couch Kaelin was seated on. "I think I'll let Dutchfox and Sparks decorate the livingroom as we bake the cake, ok?" The tiger grinned and nodded slowly as he stood up and walked over to the door, "That's fine, Ryo.." Kaelin opened the door and walked over to the car, opening the trunk. As he lifted out the box that was in the trunk he let out a small grunt, "Oof, we gonna bake a cake for a friggin' orphanage? This is heavy!" He thought, closing the trunk with his elbow.

While Kaelin walked through the livingroom and into the kitchen, Ryo was already walking around in the livingroom, thinking out how everything could be decorated. Both the otter and tiger perked their ears as they heard a car stop in front of the house, "That'll be Dutchfox and Sparks!" Ryo said as he walked up to a window, taking a peak out to the street. And he was right, Dutchfox waved as he saw Ryo standing in front of the window while Sparks was getting a small box off the backseat of the car. As Dutchfox closed the car they both walked inside.

"There we are then." Sparks said as he and the fox walked into the livingroom, both giving Ryo and Kaelin a small hug. Kaelin then got back to the kitchen, starting to unpack the ingredients for the cake, shaking his head with a grin as he heard Ryo instruct Dutchfox and Sparks how they could decorate the livingroom the best. He turned around and walked into the livingroom, charging right in towards Ryo. Both Dutchfox and Sparks grinned as they heard Ryo chitter out loud as he was picked up by tiger, laying the otter over his shoulder while walking back to the kitchen. "Have fun decorating the room, you two." Kaelin said as he looked back to Dutchfox and Sparks, closing the door behind him as he got into the kitchen.

Ryo let out a small almost cute growl as he was placed back onto the ground, looking up to the grinning Kaelin. "Why did you do that for.." He asked, a little baffled by the tiger's actions. "Hehe, you was giving Dutchfox and Sparks all kinds of instructions about how they could decorate the room the best, if they'd kept listening they wouldn't be done by next year.. Let it loose, we got a cake to bake." He gave Ryo a small pat on his shoulder while he walked over to the kitchen table, weighing the amount of flower they needed for the cake.

The otter let out a small sigh and then took a small bowl out of a small cabinet, placing it on the kitchen table. "There, we can put all the ingredients in this b.." He sentence was cut off in the middle of the sentence as Kaelin dropped the flower into the bowl, creating a big cloud of flowerdust to rise up right against Ryo's face, forcing him to stop talking and breathing for a few seconds, not to get the flowerdust in his nose or mouth.

In the meanwhile, Dutchfox and Sparks got started on decorating the livingroom. They had emptied the box onto the ground and picked up what they needed, putting or hanging it in place. Dutchfox was busy on attaching a small brightly coloured ribbon to the ceiling, going through the entire room while Sparks was busy placing big letters on the wall. "Heh, I can't believe we're doing this.. Decorating Bauske's room to give him a surprise party." Dutchfox said as he stepped off the chair, having finished attaching the ribbon to the ceiling. "Oh yeah, but it's fun to do and I like parties!" Sparks said in reply, getting another piece of decoration off the ground.

It was already 4:30PM as the four sat down in the livingroom, looking around, very satisfied, even a little impressed with the result of a good 5 hours of decorating. They all perked their ears as they heard a small *ping* coming from the oven in the kitchen. "Ah, cake's ready!" Ryo said as he got up from the couch, walking over to the kitchen. Kaelin, Dutchfox and Sparks kept sitting in the livingroom, all listening as Ryo openend up the oven. A few seconds later he came back, wearing oven gloves not to burn himself at the hot steel plate the cake was standing on as he took it to the table in the livingroom.

With a little cheer they all looked at the cake, it was truly a wounderful cake. 'Happy Birthday Bauske!' Was written on top of the cake with icing. "Now that's some serious birthday cake! Ryo, you really did a good job!" Sparks said as he looked to the cake, impressed by how good it looked. All Ryo could do, was smile as he did most of the work working on the cake, Kaelin was having more fun eating the batter, for it was very sweet, and the tiger liked that. Ryo constantly had to tell him not to eat the batter, or else there would be no more left to bake a cake.

Dutchfox had a look on his watch, "Oooh, it's almost 5 o' clock. Bauske should be going home soon. We gotta take places." He said, the rest nodding as they all agreed. They all got up, Kaelin taking place by the window looking out over the street as Ryo turned off the lights. Dutchfox, Ryo and Sparks then got down onto their knees, all three of them hiding behind the 2 couches.

"Guys, there he is! Bauske's stepping onto the yard right.... now!" With that he also got behind a couch, grinning soft. Dutchfox and Sparks both got a paw full of confetti to throw into the air as Bauske would step in. A few seconds later, they all heard the lock getting opened and the doorknob turned. The door opening as Bauske got in.

That was the sign for Kaelin, Ryo, Dutchfox and Sparks. Ryo switched on the lights and they all got up, Dutchfox and Sparks throwing their paw full of confetti towards Bauske as they all shouted,

"HAPPY 23TH BIRTHDAY, BAUSKE!!!"