3"Whoa. That's a lot of candles. How old are you?"
Earl was just about to strike one of his newly made matches when he realized that the guests were starting to trickle in, and there was a guy with a mullet and a yellow and black jacket watching him work.
Earl started to greet him, but as the guest leaned in closer to get a look, he tripped over nothing, and Earl had to grab the back of his checkered jacket to keep him from tumbling straight into the cake. "Careful, you wouldn't want to be a hazard to sterile technique, much less public health," he chided.
The newcomer gasped in mock offense. "I would never dream of letting any harm come to this beautiful cake. On purpose, at least."
The massive layer cake stood atop a small round table, and it was clear that it was actually just two different cakes hastily stacked on top of each other. The event's two caterers, the Boulangerie et Pâtisserie Bernard and the Fairy Cave, both insisted on taking the job yet refused to collaborate with each other. Earl had a step stool next to him, which was necessary for him to reach the very top.
"I am relieved we're at least on the same page about that. Baking is quite a fascinating form of chemistry."
"Well, I appreciate the save. I'm Clayton Lunar, star of Inferno Island." He held out his hand and Earl shook it.
"Earl Ng-Meyer, Stormbound contestant and understudy of Captain Ada Magellan."
"Hey, what's your accent?" Clayton asked. "I want to say British, but…"
"You got half of it. I have not put much thought into the way I speak, but it comes from splitting my time between England and China," Earl explained. "Where are you from?"
"Ireland, actually, so it sounds like it's been a long trip for both of us." Clayton braced himself for the second glance, or even an explicit comment: he wasn't what they expected, or he didn't 'look' Irish. When none came, it occurred to him that Earl had probably dealt with similar things.
The chemist just nodded. "Indeed, the majority of the guests I know are from Northern America, so it's a pleasure to acquaint myself with someone else from across the pond. And if you're still wondering about the candles…"
"Please explain."
"I am helping to decorate, because we made a lot of matches yesterday. It's not just because it's my birthday-"
"Hold up, today is your birthday?" Clayton interrupted, and Earl nodded. "It's my birthday too, what are the chances?"
"Actually, statistically, it takes a group of only twenty-three people for an even chance of there being a shared birthday among them. It's unintuitive, I know, that's why they call it the Birthday Paradox."
Clayton waved his hand dismissively. "C'mon, it's you, me, and the Total Drama reunion, all on the 28th of June! Looks to me like the stars aligned for us."
"I don't have the statistics for a group of three off the top of my head, but there are a lot of people here," Earl deflected. "Have you seen the guest list? Total Drama has a long history, although I still don't understand why there were two Stardoms. And what does it even mean for a live reality show to be 'Rewritten?'"
"Man, you really don't want to celebrate your birthday, do you," Clayton grumbled.
"My mum wasn't there last year. And it was only her the year before that." Earl smiled ruefully, stating it as a fact without much affect. "So I suppose, when I saw that it fell on the date of the reunion this year, even attending that would feel more complete. Perhaps that is why I volunteered to help set it up."
"And to think I felt so lucky that I could have my birthday at the reunion. But whether you want to celebrate your birthday or not, we still have Total Drama!" Clayton tried to assure him. "And if you don't want any birthday cake… I'm happy to take your slice."
Earl chuckled at that. "That won't be necessary, I would never turn down such an intricate confection. Ironically, the Birthday Paradox was a variable I hadn't accounted for," he commented. "Now, seeing how we share this birthday cake, could I invite you to assist in decorating?"
"Ooh, of course! Candles remind me of a friend of mine." Clayton clapped his hands.
"Now, how many candles do you think we need?" Earl asked.
This took Clayton a moment. He paced around the cake table, trying to inspect the dessert from all angles, and even hopped up onto the stool. Earl watched nervously, ready to intervene if he lost his balance again.
Clayton finally made his decision. "All of them."
Earl gave a nod of approval. "My thought exactly, the occasion deserves it." He turned around to see how the other preparations were going. "Quinn, do we have any more candles?" he called out. "I believe we all could use a chance to celebrate."
Prompt: Birthday
Song: "22" by Taylor Swift
Clayton belongs to Space Zodiac, thank you for letting me steal him and happy belated birthday! This is technically prompt 28, and I'll likely move things around once I write the rest, but I wanted to skip ahead to get this one out at a slightly more relevant time. I wasn't originally planning on making this connected to the previous story, and they weren't planned to be uploaded back to back either, but when I saw I had two different stories planned with Earl and a guest character, I concepted the Total Drama reunion to tie them together.
This is also my last upload of June, so I hope everyone had a wonderful Pride!