Chapter 1: Birthday Season Begins

[This is the first chapter of a (hopefully) continuous/long-running series.

This chapter has no sex scenes, but serves to introduce readers to the main characters that will be involved in this series and shows the initial relationships between them.

Future chapters of this series

will

include plenty of intimacy, sex, and erotic moments between many of the characters introduced in this chapter.

Standard Disclaimer: All of my stories, including this one, are purely works of fiction, and any similarities to real world persons or events are purely coincidental. All characters involved in any sexual content are 18 years of age or older at the time such content occurs.]

"It's here! It's here!" Amy yelled as she clomped down the stairs, as giddy as a child on Christmas morning. Although, since Christmas was over two months away, it was obvious my eighteen-year-old baby sister was excited for some other reason. Today was October 1

st

, the beginning of Halloween season (despite the fact that Halloween decorations and candy had been in stores since late August), the Opening of a New Renaissance Festival, and of course, the beginning of "Birthday Season" for me and my siblings. While I would be turning twenty one at the end of the month, on the 26

th

, Amy's birthday was one week earlier, on the 18

th

. Our sister, Jenny, who is two years older than me, was born on November 6

th

, so she doesn't usually get too excited about the start of "Birthday Season", unlike my little sister.

Amy was always the happy bubbly sibling, always wanting to hang out, go on adventures, and play games with her older siblings (mostly meaning me). I didn't mind, though, because she wasn't annoying about it, and she was actually fun to hang around. Which is why when our parents taught us how to play Dungeons and Dragons when we were younger, Amy and I were the only ones who routinely played after we entered high school.

Jenny was the more "emotionally mature" of the three of us. While she had enjoyed playing with her kid siblings when we were younger, when she entered middle school she began focusing more on her schoolwork, and when she entered high-school she pretty much stopped hanging out with us all together. It's not like she was mean to us or anything. On the contrary, if we needed her for something, she was always there for us, but she just didn't have time to hang out and play games anymore. She was always studying or going to school events; and she was the "Straight-A Student" because of it.

I, on the other hand, wasn't very responsible at all. All throughout high school, my grades were all over the place. "A"s in math and science, "B"s and "C"s in art classes and P.E., and "F"s in social studies and English classes. It's not that I didn't understand the material for my worse classes, I just didn't care. I was too wrapped up in designing my latest D&D campaign, or writing a science fiction novel I'd started in the 7

th

grade (and still hadn't finished even though I was now a junior in college).

"It's here! It's here!" Amy yelled again, as she scrambled through the living room and down the hallway to the kitchen.

I was sitting at the breakfast table, eating the home-cooked breakfast my mom had made for us. I say,

My

mom because, while Amy and I have the same dad, we have different biological mothers, technically making us half-siblings.

For that matter, Jenny is also my half-sibling, but we only share a biological mother. Her biological father left our mom soon after she got pregnant with Jenny.

But we never saw each other as anything but full siblings, since, with the exception of Jenny's dad, all our parents were still there. You see, unlike most families, we had two moms...

and

a dad.

Our parents form a polyamorous triad consisting of our Dad, Jenny's and My mom, and Amy's mom. If we needed to distinguish between our moms, Jenny and my mom was called "Mamma Janie", and Amy's mom was called "Mamma Helen". But if there was only one of them around, we just called her "Mom" regardless of which one was there.

Since we lived a short way from the university to which we three kids got accepted, the six of us all lived together as one big family, at least until Jenny went off to Grad School two months ago.

Legally, of course, only our moms are married, but growing up we never saw it that way. All three of them were true parents to all of us kids.

"It's here! It's here!" Amy yelled for the third time as she ran into the kitchen, nearly crashing into the table. If I hadn't held out my arm to catch her, my breakfast would have gone flying across the room.

"It's here!" Amy said more softly, holding onto my arm to balance herself.

"Amelia, dear," Mom chided, "you need to calm down. You almost spilled your brother's food."

"Sorry, Gabe," Amy said, failing to calm down, "I'm just so excited!"

"You always get excited around birthday season," I retorted, But I've never seen you

this

excited before."

"That's because they're opening a new Renaissance Festival this year, and it's my first chance to go since the pandemic. You are coming with me this year, aren't you?" My sister beamed with enthusiasm.

Honestly, I hadn't planned to go to the festival this year. I'd gone to the original Renaissance Fair several times in the past, before they closed it during the recent Covid-24 pandemic. They reopened it two years ago, but poor turnout caused them to close down permanently. They sold the site to a new owner who decided to completely redesign the entire event.

I've never been a big fan of change, so I had decided I wasn't going to go. That was, until my baby sister looked at me with her adorable hazel eyes in the middle of her cute round, pink, face, twirling her long brown hair and asked me to go with her. I've never been able to say no to her when she asks me to do something. I told myself it was because, as her big brother, I had to look out for her. But I also genuinely wanted to make her happy, too.

"Of course!" I tried, and failed, to match her enthusiasm, "Tommy said he, Ashley, and Jaden were planning to go next week. Perhaps we could coordinate with them."

Tommy, Ashley, and Jaden were the other three members of our regular D&D group. I'd met Tommy my first year in college, in the Gaming Club there, and we'd been close friends since. Ashley was Tommy's older sister, and Jaden was Ashley's boyfriend. We'd been playing D&D together for the past three years, and were as close as any friends I'd had.

"I suppose that could work," Amy replied, a little less enthusiastically, but still smiling cutely.

"Amy, you'd better eat your breakfast if you want your brother to be able to drive you to school," Mom said, sitting a plate of sausage, eggs, grits, and toast on the table.

Amy and I went to the same university, only a 45 minute drive from our rural homestead. She had just started as a Freshman, and I was in my third year there as a Junior. Our older sister had gone there as well, having graduated last year. Because it was so close, our parents insisted we stay at home and drive there, to save money, so I'd been driving myself there for the last two years, and this year I "got" to drive Amy to school, too. Not that I minded, really. Amy had her license, but we only had one car to share between us: an old, blue 1997 Buick LeSabre. It wasn't in bad condition for a thirty plus year old car. Its paint was pealing in places, had some rust in others, and accelerated like a snail, but its engine ran just as good as the day our grandparents gave it to us. (Not that it's of any consequence, but specifically it was Mamma Helen's parents that gave it to us. My dad's parents cut him off when they found out he was living with two women, and Mamma Janie's parents disowned her when she married Mamma Helen. Only Mamma Helen's parents were accepting of their relationships.)

Amy excitedly devoured her breakfast, and gulped down a glass of orange juice.

"Done," she declared triumphantly, "Come on, Gabe. Let's go." I had never seen such a big smile on Amy's face, even when we'd gone to Six Flags on a family summer trip.

*

The entire time we were in the car, Amy kept glancing over at me with a big smile on her face. I assumed she was thinking about the Renaissance Festival, and wanted to ask me something about it, but she never did. I didn't ask her about it, because I figured if it were important enough, she'd say something. We did talk about something, but I can't remember what it was, because I had zoned out for half the conversation listening to the music I had on.

The car was so old it didn't have Bluetooth connections. Instead, it had an old radio with a CD player and something called a "Cassette Tape Deck" which apparently predates even the CD player. Five years ago, if I had wanted to listen to my own music in this car, I would have had to do what they called "burn a CD" of it. Fortunately, a couple years ago they came out with the "MP3D": a disk the same size and shape as a CD, which functioned as an old CD, except that you could download your music to it from any smart phone via Bluetooth. It would automatically format the songs so that the old CD player could read them. Today, I was listening to Oldie Rock from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Music like AC/DC and Led Zeppelin were the top of my list.

"GABE!" Amy punched me on the shoulder, snapping me out of my "zone", "Are you even listening?"

"Yes," I lied, "I'm just paying attention to the road. You don't want to wreck do you?"

Amy glared at me, "No."

She crossed her arms, obviously upset.

What had I missed? Last I remembered she was talking about our birthdays and about being excited about the Renaissance Festival. Now she was angry? Was it just that I had obviously zoned out? Was she mad at me just for that? I always zone out on our ride to school. And we always say the same thing about it. She'll punch my arm, I'll say I'm just paying attention to the road, and her reply is always, "You always say that."

But not today. For some reason, Amy was upset. For most people, their sibling being upset wouldn't even phase them. But it bothered me... a lot.

"Amy," I started to say something but was met with daggers from Amy's eyes. It was weird. Despite her being angry, her cute elf-like face was even cuter. The daggers from her hazel eyes blunted by the adorable wrinkle in her forehead, and pursed lips that puckered slightly and, if she were any other girl and not my sister, would look more like they were expecting a kiss than were angry.

Despite the miss-match of her facial expression, it told me to just stop talking and drive. So I did. The rest of the car ride was awkwardly silent. I'd turned my music down so I wouldn't miss anything else Amy said, but she didn't speak the rest of the car ride. Even after we got out of the car in the parking deck at the university, she just said, "I'm going to class," and stormed off.

I considered running after her, and asking her what was wrong, but I thought better of it. Better to let her calm down and come to me. If pressed about something, Amy could be stubborn. We all could, actually. So instead, I just headed toward my first class.

It was nine forty-five, and my first class didn't start until ten thirty, so I had a little time to kill. Amy's first class started at ten, which is why we got there so early. Usually, I would walk with her to her first class, which was only slightly out of the way to mine. Afterward, I would hang out in a nearby café, either playing games on my laptop or browsing the internet. But today, worried as I was about Amy, I just sat near the entrance to the lecture hall for my first class and browsed social media on my phone.

My first class got out at eleven twenty, and I knew Amy's got out at eleven fifteen. Usually we would meet up with Tommy and Jaden for about twenty minutes in the campus courtyard before parting ways to go to our next classes, which started at noon. However, Amy didn't show up.

"Your sister not here today?" Jaden asked after we exchanged greetings.

"She's here, just upset about something," I replied blandly.

"What happened?" Tommy asked in his usual gruff tone.

"I don't know," I sat down on the courtyard bench next to the one they had been sitting on, "On the way here, one minute she was all giddy and excited about it being October finally, then suddenly she was seemingly upset with me."

Tommy and Jaden were very similar in personality: Outgoing, friendly, and often too nosey for their own good. However, physically they were nothing alike.

Tommy was short, shorter than even Amy, standing at five foot one. But he wasn't "small" by any means. He had been a weight-lifting champion in high school, and his arms and legs were nearly twice as big as mine. He had short-cut brown hair, a clean-shaven face, and light bronze skin. Despite his massive strength, he preferred intellectual pursuits to physical ones (even though he still visited the campus gym twice a week). He had a near perfect GPA in high-school and was double-majoring in physics and biology. He was a Junior, like me, but was a year younger, and still had enough college credits that he could have graduated in the spring, but he planned on finishing his fourth year, so he could finish his minor in medieval history.

Jaden on the other hand was tall, just over six feet tall, and thin, but not skinny. His arms and legs, despite being thinner than even Amy's, were well-toned and muscular. He had light blonde hair, and a pale complexion. While not nearly as strong as Tommy, Jaden preferred physical activities. He was on the college basketball team with a scholarship from his time in high school basketball. He's even floated the idea of going pro after he graduates. His grades were mediocre, passing, but not by much. He was older than me by six months, but often treated me like an older brother.

"Did you say something to upset her?" Tommy asked accusingly.

"Actually," I replied, ignoring his accusation, "I think she may have said something to me, or tried to. I zoned out while she was talking, and the next thing I knew she was upset."

"Sounds like she didn't like you ignoring her," Jaden interjected, "perhaps..." I cut him off.

"That's just it, I always zone out on the ride here. Normally she just chides me for it and we laugh about it, but today she just got mad."

"Do you even know what she was talking about?" Tommy asked.

"Well," I paused and thought for a moment, "She was excited about the Renaissance Festival, but..."

"I thought you decided not to go this year," Jaden interrupted.

"Amy wanted to go," I shrugged, "So I said I'd ask you guys if we could go with you next weekend."

"Sure," Tommy said, smiling, "It'll be fun: all of us together in a fantasy world, it'll be like D&D in real life."

"That is, if she still wants to go," I mused to no one in particular.

"I'll call you tonight after we all get home and we'll discuss specifics," Tommy replied, standing up, "Don't want to be late for class."

The three of us split up and headed to class. My second class was a bit longer than my first one, lasting until one fifteen, after which I usually met Amy for lunch at one of the many on-campus dining halls. Amy's second class got out at twelve fifty, so she usually met me there. However, the way today was going, I expected her not to show up.

But when I arrived at the dining hall, I was pleasantly surprised to see Amy sitting at our usual table. I sat down across the table from her.

"Hey," she said, looking down at her food, but not eating.

"I've been worried about you," I said.

"Why?" she asked, looking up at me. I could see that she'd been crying, but her tears were dried.

"You were very upset this morning," I replied sincerely, "and when you didn't meet us after our first class..."

"Gabe," Amy smiled for a moment, then it faded again, "I just needed some time alone to think," She smiled again, "I'm sorry I got upset this morning. It was nothing you did. I just... I got upset when you were ignoring me." She looked down at her food again.

"Amy, you know I always zone out when I'm driving and listening to my music," I replied.

"I know," she looked up at me again, "I don't know why it bothered me today. I wasn't even really talking about anything important."

I smiled a little, looking into her eyes, "You know I'd never intentionally ignore you, right?"

"I know," Amy smiled, nearly giggling, "Like I said, I don't know why I was bothered by it today."

"So we're good?" I asked, still a little worried.

"We're good," She replied with a big smile.

"In that case," I returned her smile, "I talked to Tommy and Jaden about joining them at the Renaissance Festival next weekend."

Amy's face lit up again, just as if she had been happy all day, "Really?!? What did they say?"

"He thought it'd be fun," I replied, "like a D&D adventure."

"Ooooh!" Amy replied excitedly, "We should all dress up as our favorite character from our campaigns!"

We'd played several Dungeons & Dragons campaigns over the last three years, since I joined the University's Gaming Guild and met Tommy and the rest of the group. Amy joined us soon after, since family of members were welcome to the Guild. The first few campaigns we played in, Tommy had been the Dungeon Master. But soon after, I ran a few of my own campaigns as DM. After my first campaign, everyone agreed I should be our groups main DM. Not that Tommy's games were bad, but he preferred being a player, and I preferred being a DM.

"I'll be talking with Tommy after we get home today," I replied, "I'll bring it up with him, see what he thinks."

*

The rest of the day went relatively normally. After lunch, Amy and I went to our third classes. When mine got out at three forty-five, Amy and I met at the closest café to where we parked our car, got a couple of coffees (Amy got a strawberry crème cappuccino, and I got a dark chocolate mocha cappuccino), and walked together to the car. On the drive home, Amy talked about which of her many characters she wanted to dress up as, although she was talking more to herself than to me. We got home around five. When we got home, Amy skipped up to her room, and I went to mine. After an hour or so of working on homework, Tommy called.

"Hey," I said as Tommy's face popped up on the screen.

"Hey," he echoed my greeting, "Did you figure out what was up with Amy?"

"Apparently it was literally nothing. She was back to her usual chipper self by lunch."

"That's good," he replied nonchalantly, "Ashley and I were talking about our plans for the Renaissance Festival. She was wanting us to all dress in period attire, but I wasn't sure how you or Amy would feel about that."

"We'd be fine with it," I replied, "Actually, Amy suggested we should dress as our favorite personal D&D characters from any of our campaigns."

Tommy was silent for a moment before he responded.

"BRILLIANT! Ashley will LOVE the idea! I already know who I'm dressing as!"

"Kordek Sunbeard, your Dwarven Cleric?" I guessed.

"How in tha hell did you know that!?!" He asked bewildered.

Of all the humanoid species in D&D, the Dwarf was by far Tommy's favorite. He's played other species before, but it was always a matter of time before he went back to playing a dwarf. Kordek Sunbeard was a character that he had played in not one, but two of the campaigns that I had DMed. Technically, they were two different characters, one being the grandson of the other (since the campaigns took place nearly three centuries apart), but they were identical in appearance, personality, and even game mechanics.