"Blow out the candles, Robby, and make a wish!"

His mother's over enthusiasm was infectious and so Robby scrunched his eyes closed and blew out the seven candles on his cake. He held the thought in his mind for a long moment as people laughed and his mom cut the cake. When he opened his eyes, nothing had changed.

His cake was still a transformers cake, and the boys at his party had not magically transformed into girls.

"Blow out the candles, Rob, and make a wish!"

The divorce had taken a lot out of his mother this year, but he still had hope for the future. Eight candles to be blown out, and a bigger name to make him feel special. He still liked to be called Robby, but his dad went by Bobby. It reminded his mother too much of all she'd lost to keep calling him Robby.

He closed his eyes as tightly as he could, hoping that he could have his one true wish. The wish he'd told his father a year ago. He also wished his father would come back. Somewhere deep inside he thought that his father leaving might be his fault, but he tried to put it away.

He blew out the candles and was again disappointed to find himself unchanged.

"Make a wish, Rob!"

Mom's new boyfriend Mike stood behind her and they both smiled at Rob as he again closed his eyes and blew out the candles. There were fewer friends this year because his mom was tired of him hanging with the girls in the neighborhood and Mike thought this would help him man up.

Mike scared him sometimes.

Nine candles blown out with a wish made in desperation. Dad come home, I didn't mean it. I need you here.

"Blow out the candles, Rob!"

Mom wore heavy makeup this year to cover the black eye. Rob's arm was in a cast. Mike was in jail.

Rob closed his eyes tightly and made a wish. It was the only wish he could remember now. The first wish. Dad died trying to protect them. That's why Mike was in jail. No friends were at the house this year.

Ten candles for little Robby on this day when his father had died.

The cake was all in black with black wax candles.

"Blow out the candles, Rob, and make a wish!"

"The name is Sorrow, mom. Get it right."

Mom hid a smile behind her black lace-gloved hand. "Ok, Sorrow, make a wish."

Rob scrunched his eyes tight like he did as a child, trying to recapture that simple innocence that he missed. It was the anniversary of his father's death and they had a deathday/birthday this year.

He blows out the eleven candles and the wish remains unfulfilled.

"Robert? Robert!? Are you home?"

The cake sat in a bakery box on the counter. Twelve candles lay in a box next to it on the counter.

Robert was at Julie's house. He'd been there often this week and his mom thought that this was his budding hormones at work. She tossed the cake in the trash and goes to lie down. She feelt so tired after a day of work on her feet at the hospital.

Robert and Julie sat on the couch wondering what they are going to do. They haven't done anything yet, but they really want to tell his mom. They fell asleep next to each other on the couch as they waited for his mom to get home. She smiled thinking of young love and got a blanket out of the closet for them.

She threw thirteen candles in the trash and put the cake in the fridge for later.

Robbie looked out through the window. His mother wasn't understanding at all. She moved him to across town with her. He locked the door when he came in like usual.

None of this was fair. His mother had seemed so sympathetic about it all, but she was just so mad when she'd found out the truth. Robbie looked out the window at the evening star and made a wish. It was the same wish, but he wanted also to be Julie's sister. They got along so well, and he knew that they could convince her parents that his wish was the only right course for him to take.

There wouldn't be a cake this year even if he wanted it.

He cried himself to sleep.

Robbie lay in the hospital bed. His mother was working so she took care of him when she could, but mostly he just felt trapped by the cast immobilizing his hips. An aluminum baseball bat can do a lot of damage when it is swung in anger. The diary had been private, but Suzanne had spread its contents to the entire school.

His crush on Scott had gotten him attacked by the rest of the baseball team.

Scott had come by a couple of times to apologize, and Robbie tried not to let him know how much it improved the day.

There were no candles on the cake his mother had brought in, but he closed his eyes tightly and made a wish.

It was still painful to walk, but his physical therapist told him that would get better with time. Julie had driven across town to visit him and they baked a cake and lit the candles.

"Well, Make a wish, Kieley."

The boy scrunched up his nose and shook his head.

"Lulu?"

"No."

"Laura?"

"How about Laney?"

"I like it. Make a wish, Laney."

The newly named Laney scrunched up his nose as he smiled. The makeup he wore didn't quite match his coloring, but he didn't care. His mother wouldn't be home for another couple of hours and he had time to clean it all off.

He blew out sixteen candles and smiled as he wished.

Laney spent time in the mall on his seventeenth birthday. He was trying to muster up the courage to get his ears pierced with some of the money that he had earned this year at this job. People already thought him strange at school, but that was fine by him.

The damage to his genitals two years ago meant that he was supposed to be taking testosterone. He didn't tell anyone that Julie had provided him with some of those birth control patches. He wore it on his hip and it made him smile every time he saw it in the mirror.

He finally decided to go with a pair of skulls with heart shaped eyes. That would really give them something to talk about.

Laney tugged at her skirt, feeling like it was too short. She no longer cared what her mother said. The cake had two large wax numbers on it. 18. She blew it out, wishing again her same wish. For ten years she'd been hoping that there would be a magical change. That she would open her eyes and everything would be different. But she opened them and the world was the same as it had been. There were no changes and she began to cry.

She was alone in her apartment and alone in her heart. Julie was already off at school and Laney expected to meet her there in the fall.

She went to bed without cutting the cake.

Julie and her boyfriend, Adam, looked across the table at Laney.

"Come on, Make a wish birthday girl."

Laney wrinkled up her nose and stuck out her tongue. She took a deep breath and blew. Apparently it had done some fine work to her chest as Adam was staring when Laney looked up.

Laney blushed and Julie elbowed him.

It wasn't her wish, the same wish she'd been making for years, but it was pleasant none the less.

Laney could hardly sit without discomfort. She was happy with the changes that this last year had brought, but she was still in a lot of pain.

"Make a wish, Laney?"

Laney smiled at Scott, and Adam and Julie laughed.

She closed her eyes tightly and wished with all her heart that the world would change her into what she had always wanted to be. She opened them and the pain remained. A tear dropped from her eye.

"Are you okay, Laney?"

"I'm happy, Scott. It's just the pain of the surgery."

"Ok, cut the cake and let's eat then."

Twenty-one candles graced the cake. Laney felt the weight of the ring on her finger, a simple band, as she sat there looking at the cake. The fire light danced in her eyes as she smiled at her friends.

She closed her eyes tightly and blew out the candles.

"So, what did you wish for?" Scott asked, fingering the matching band on his finger.

For once, finally, she was glad that nothing had changed when she opened her eyes. "I have nothing left to wish for."

"Oh come on," Julie said. She was very pregnant and Laney couldn't be happier for her.

"Well, I could wish for one thing..."

"Oh really?"

"Yes, I wish all of you would go home so I could spend some time with my husband."

There was general laughter at this and they bid their friends good night.

Scott carried her to their bed.

As she lay there in his arms quite a bit later, listening to him snore, she realized something.

Her wish had been granted. The wish she made all those years ago before her father left had been granted. She cried tears of happiness as she lay there wrapped in love.