"" everyone yelled in unison, startling neil. his face quickly grew from shocked to a giant smile when he realized what was going on.

"happy birthday neil." amélie said. neil quickly pulled her into a giant hug. he knew that she had done all of this. i mean, maybe his friends helped a little bit, but he knew that she was the only person who'd ever do something like this for him. someone who cared about him so deeply. not even his parents had ever done something like this.

his eyes quickly became glossy at the sight of all his smiling friends. "thank you guys. you didn't have to."

"it was all amélie." knox remarked, making amé blush and deny it.

"it.. was all of us."

neil couldn't keep rambling on about how happy he was. he held his tears of joy back. "thank you so much everyone."

"you can open your presents now if you want." charlie suggested, motioning over to the blanket that was sat on the ground beside the cave.

"these, these are all for me?" neil asked joyfully. he looked like a kid on christmas morning. he sat down in front of the pile of dark blue gifts, his eyes darting around to look each one and figure what he should open first.

"who else would they be for?" marianne laughed, watching neil grin as he looked through every present with excitement.

he sounded like a broken record, the way he kept repeating how excited he was and how thankful he was for everything. "no one's ever done anything like this, i appreciate it."

"okay, this one's from.." he trailed off, struggling to find the name tag. "pitts and meeks."

"oh i'm excited." pitts smiled, watching intensely as neil tore into their present.

"we read it last term, and you always talked about how much you loved it so we figured that we'd buy you a copy." meeks quickly added, watching neil pull out a hard cover copy of 'to kill a mocking bird'.

"to kill a mockingbird." neil whispered, stroking the cover and admiring it in silence. "i'm so happy to add it to my collection."

"see? i knew he would like it." meeks said, cracking a smile and elbowing pitts right in the ribs.

"thank you, you two." neil hummed, a smile forming on his face again. he grabbed another gift from the pile, but was quickly stopped.

"wait! not that one. that one's special, i'll give it to you later." amélie snatched it away from him with a smile before he even got to speak a word of protest.

neil could barely contain himself. "now i'm even more excited. i'll open the one from knox, next." he grabbed knox's gift, and held it up to show all his friends.

"oh god, not mine." knox blushed, embarrassed by his gift. he hid his face while neil opened it carefully.

"buddy holly? how'd you know!" neil exclaimed, flipping the record over to read the back. knox glanced at amélie, who gave him a grin.

"who doesn't like him?" he quickly replied, shifting his gaze to an excited neil.

"i don't have this record yet, thank you." he took his eyes off the record and looked at knox, giving him a smile and a nod.

"do mine next, neil." cameron piped up, pointing at a small but thick present in the pile.

neil grabbed it, and double-checked the tag to make sure it was the right one. "okay. this is cameron's.."

he tore away the wrapping to reveal a box of black ink pens, furrowing his eyebrows as he tried to figure out what they were. "those are fancy pens. they're a dollar each and they write finely. they used to use them in old books." cameron said, neil's face slowly growing back into a grin.

"thank you, i'll have to test them out sometime." he said, the thoughts of all the poetry and letters that he'd be able to write with these new pens flowing through his mind.

he almost lost track of what he was doing. "charlie and marianne, i'll do yours next." he quickly said, grabbing the next present he saw.

"you better like it. it was expensive." charlie snickered, marianne pouting and nodding in agreement. their arms were intertwined and she clutched onto him.

"a playbook? wow!" neil's face lit up with joy as he read the title.

he admired it closely, the excitement for his play rushing over him again. "it's so fancy. thank you, both of you!"

"i'll do one of amélie's many." he snorted, searching through a pile of presents to find one that's signed off with her signature 'amé'.

"i can't tell which one that is." amélie cowarded away, embarrassed to see whether her present impressed neil or not.

neil held the heavy gift in his hand, quickly tearing away the blue wrapping paper and revealing a stack of 7 books.

"those are my favorite books. i thought you could read them, so we could discuss them and stuff." amélie quickly said. she felt the need to explain it to him, even though she could tell that he knew they were her favorites right away.

"i'm looking forward to reading them, thank you." neil nodded. he didn't want to overshadow anyone else's gifts because he loved them all, but amélie's made him feel special.

he quickly moved onto another present, the pile consisting of only a few more. "todd. yours is heavy." he commented, unwrapping the gift to reveal a tiny white box.

he opened it, and didn't have any words when he saw the watch it contained. "god, this is beautiful." he muttered, his eyes quickly looking at todd.

"t-thanks, it's really nothing-" todd said nervously, his face heating up.

"it's even got my intials engraved onto it. thank you so much todd." neil gushed, carefully pulling out the watch and admiring it. he slid it onto his wrist.

"and there's only one left." knox snickered, neil finally realizing how many presents he'd gone through.

"two, amélie has another one." charlie added, making all the boys laugh.

amélie rolled her eyes playfully, still holding a blue wrapped book. "i want to give it to him in private."

neil opened the last gift and was confused at what he saw. "a camera?" he asked, opening the box and pulling out the black polaroid camera.

"i'm going to try it right now." neil grinned, snapping a picture of amélie. she jumped back with surprise when the camera flashed.

"stop it neil!" she giggled, the flash hurting her eyes. the photo printed, the boys watching as the image slowly revealed itself.

once it was clear enough, neil spoke. "you look beautiful." his breath hitched, a slight blush creeping up his cheeks. he quickly pocketed the photo.

"i- i mean you always do.." he smiled, amélie trying to keep herself from blushing as well.

"he's keeping it so he can jack off to it later." charlie remarked, ruining the moment. all the boys erupted into laughter, including neil and marianne.

"i hope he does." amélie purred, making neil nervously stare at her. she quickly laughed.

"get a room you two!" marianne snickered.

"if we need to get a room, you and charlie need to get an entire house." amélie replied back, making mari roll her eyes and shrug.

"okay, who wants cake?" knox asked, picking up the glass container that contained the cake.

"cake? you guys got me a cake?" neil asked, shocked as knox took off the cover to reveal a white cake with 'happy birthday neil' written in red icing.

"we baked it actually." pitts corrected.

"amélie and marianne did. we kind of, helped.." meeks added, marianne nodding in agreement.

"there's going to be a strong vanilla taste in there." knox laughed, recalling to what happened between him and charlie.

"i can't thank you guys enough, i feel so special." neil rambled. amélie stuck exactly 16 candles into the cake, all of them different colors.

"we love you neil." charlie said, the tone in voice different from how he usually talks. it didn't sound like he was trying to crack a joke, it sounded like he was being genuine.

"who's got a lighter?" amé called out.

"i do, here!" cameron yelled back, throwing the lighter to amélie.

"okay, one, two, three.." she carefully lit all the candles and began to lead the singing.

"happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you.." everyone sang, neil's face actually lighting up in the glow of the candle light.

"happy birthday dear neil!"

"happy birthday to you." everyone finished, neil blowing out the candles all at once, leaving one still lit.

"you're going to have one girlfriend." marianne joked, neil quickly blowing out the last one.

"that's all i need, i think." he grinned.