Sage and I arrive home from our second day at Disney World in time for dinner and my party, as promised. Our father decided not to do the second day with us, because his leg had been bumped around too much on the coasters yesterday, and he’d wanted to rest it before the next park.

He, Angel, Ana and Julia have met us on the front porch. The girls are extra excited, because they’ve decked themselves out in their finest princess gowns, tiaras and what looks like buckets of their horrible blue-eyeshadow. Sage, obviously rebelling the costumes this time, rolls his eyes and mutters so they can’t hear him, “I will not be tricked into wearing prince-shit or one damn cape. No matter how much they beg me.”

“Good luck with that,” I answer, while we all pause to admire them spinning-and-spinning in the yard. When they fall onto the grass giggling, I help them stand, then gush over their new sparkling, silver-glitter nail polish, saying, “Too bad I don’t have a princess dress that fits me this time.”

Ana flutters her lashes. “It’s okay if you don’t have a dress. You can be the princess that’s in hiding. Sometimes there’s that kind of princess and no one even knows.” She gazes adoringly up at my face. “But usually you can tell because of their hair, and you have really good princess hair.” She points. “If you take it out of that ponytail you will be nearly matching us, almost. And you will feel like a princess, too, which is the most important.”

I laugh, reaching up to pull out my hairband and run fingers through my tangled hair so it drapes around my shoulders. “Okay. I can at least do that. How’s this?”

“Great,” Julia nods approvingly.

Sage rolls his eyes and laughs as Angel points around to the back yard. “They’re all set up in the garden like before. If you don’t mind coming around this way, it would help.”

“Help with the surprises.” Ana wiggles her little brows up and down.

“Ana.” Angel’s voice is all warning.

“Wait until you see the cake,” Julia pipes in, skipping around me in a circle.

“Julia!” Angel’s voice turns murderous. “You girls promised if I let you wait out here with us you would not blab any of our secrets.” Angel grabs one of each of their hands and drags them away from me as if that could make them stop talking.

“But she knows there’s going to be a cake and she knows that the piñata is going to be full of candy and toys and—” Julia wrinkles her brow, frowning. “It’s a birthday party, but I won’t tell her about the sparkler candles and I won’t tell her about how the slip-and-slide thing is very—”

“Shh!” Angel shakes his head at both of them. “I knew they’d they ruin everything. Sage why did you make me involve them.”

“Because, they have to be involved.” My brother turns to Ana and Julia. “Remember. You two promised. No more talking.”

They both nod, acting very serious as I ask, “Wait. Sage knows the secrets?”

Sage nods, his smile going from big to huge. “Of course.”

“And I know about them, too.” My dad laughs. “I actually had to approve each and every one of them. And Robin?” He pulls himself up tall and crosses his arms. “I do approve each and every one of them.”

“How. Why? And…thanks,” I add, laughing out loud at how now everyone’s acting so very serious.

“Because Dad and I are part of the surprise, duh. So no more questions or you’ll mess us all up,” Sage glances at Angel. “Are we supposed to change or something?”

My father grins stepping away from me. “Yeah do we have to?”

“Change into swimsuits?” I ask, looking down at the shorts and t-shirt I’d worn today. “If we’re going to play on that dangerous tarp thing you guys made, I want to do that first, because I’m sweaty and tired from running around rides all day, so I’ll have to change, too. I’m sure Mrs. Perino—I mean Zia—is going to stuff us with too much amazing, food and I don’t want to be slip and sliding with one of her food babies in tow.”

My brother laughs at that and Angel evades my gaze. “Probably no changing, yet. Sage and Mr. Love, Sir.” Angel flicks a glance at my father. “You stay here with Robin and I will go back into the yard with the girls, and you two wait a bit for us all to get into position and then you come in. Okay?”

My father nods. “Okay.”

“If you’re going to pelt me with water balloons or silly string, I think someone should warn me,” I joke. “Ana? Julia? Now’s the time to tell me…should I run? Put on my sunglasses?”

Ana starts giggling along with Julia and they both start to say something just as Angel clamps his hands over their mouths, muffling anything that was about to come out, into giggling squeals of protest. My heart swells with just how much I love this family.

“Robin, you will do what we say, exactly, or else you’ll ruin the party,” my father says again in that fake-stern-father voice he’d used before.

“Oh God. Now I’m scared. Is there a mechanical bull or something? The anticipation is killing me.” I lock gazes with Ana and Julia who are working hard to squirm away from Angel’s grip. “Am I getting a pet unicorn? A puppy?”

Julia gets away from Angel and dashes up the steps to the porch to grab a long flat box and hands it to me while Ana bounces up next to us. “We won’t tell but we made you a magic wand, Robin. If you carry it with you won’t have to get wet right away because it’s really fancy and everyone knows about how hard we worked on this and they won’t ruin it.” Ana, also now released from Angel, runs to join her sister so they can both hand me the box at the same time.

Kneeling down to be at their same height, I open the box and gingerly and they help me pull out a long bumpy stick that’s been wrapped over and over again in pastel ribbons and glued haphazardly with crystals. A few long ribbons hang down past the handle and a tiny star has been glued onto the very tip of it. It’s so sweet and beautiful—so very Ana and Julia, all wrapped up for me to hold that I pause to hug them in close to me. “This is the best present I’ve ever had in my whole life. Thank you.”

They beam up at me. Julia says, “Sage told us you will choose a real wizard wand at Universal Studios, but we told him that you also like more magical fairy tale princess wands like these, too. Right?”

“Right. I love all wands.” I agree with them, working to keep my face solemn instead of about to crack up. “And this one is going to be my forever-favorite. It also has to be more powerful than any wand you could buy in a wand shop.”

I hold what they’ve made up high for Angel, my father, and Sage to admire.

Ana clasps her hands to her chest and sighs. “It will make all of your dreams and wishes come true, Robin. That’s why we made it for you.”

“It really will.” Julia nods confidently up at the wand. “Just go ahead and wish something you’ll see, it will happen. Just go ahead and try.”

“Okay. Enough of this disgusting, boring princess stuff,” Sage interrupts. “Let’s go start the party. Who’s ready for candy?” Sage motions to Angel, and steers Ana and Julia toward the back gate.

Angel enters the gate behind the girls and Sage, turning back once to give me a wink. “Don’t worry piccolo-new-cousin.” He’s using that low voice of his. “You’re going to love this party. Promise. But just in case, the girls are right. Keep the wand handy.” He nods to my dad. “Give us at least five minutes.”

When the gate closes, Dad and I listen intently as we hear things being moved. Tons of whispering and door slamming happens, all followed with the girls giggling like someone is tickling them. Then there’s more shushing than what you’d hear from a pack of angry librarians, leaving only the wind and crickets to make noise after that.

As I cross my arms and lean back against the Perino’s front steps, I look at the wand again and catch my dad eyeing me and it, intently. He points at the wand. “Did you make a wish yet, honey?”

“Can’t think of one. Maybe when we do the cake, but it doesn’t really matter.” I shrug and place the lovely little wand back in the box. “I don’t believe in that kind of stuff anymore.”