Chapter 2
So I wasn't grounded, lucky for me. I did get restricted from some things however, like my cell phone and computer; dang parents are annoying! Thank goodness my birthday is in a few days followed by Christmas Holidays, yes! And my parents can never fool me about my birthday gifts because I always find a clue like last year the receipt for my new computer was in the garbage that I had to take out.
All and all; back to my story.
"So I'm guessing the party at Ryan's this weekend is out right?" Rosalina asked certainly. Rosalina and I were walking home from school on Friday. I had invited her to dinner but she had homework-so did I- so we decided to walk together to the road that branched off into four roads, two in which led to our homes. I nodded, "The party of the year and I'm not going," I sighed. Rosalina giggled, "Did you forget your birthday was this weekend? You wouldn't have gone anyways silly."
I tried my best not to blush but could feel my face turn hot anyways. How could I forget my own birthday? "Your parents invited my dad, Josh, and me to your birthday party so I'll be there," she smiled. "At least my friends will be there," I thought, "mom and dad probably invited all their families so they have to come." "Nat you still with me?" I heard her fingers snapping right in front of my face and I came back to reality, "Yeah, fine; so see you tomorrow at my party?" She nodded and we parted ways.
I walked along the sidewalk with my sweatshirt's hood on my head and my hands tucked deep as they could go into its pockets. It was really windy today and with that added onto the low temperature would make anyone come down with something and I wasn't gonna allow myself to get sick with my birthday only the next day.
My eyes fluttered open on the shadows of frosted sunshine casting over onto my bright orange painted wall. My first thoughts were why did it seem like short daylight hours and longer night hours was only a phrase and there wasn't anything long about the nights in New York. I sat up and rubbed lingering sleep from my eyes. I looked over at my alarm clock and saw that it read 7:20.
Sudden excitement rushed me as I remembered that I was one year older than I was the previous day. I was now 14-years-old! I ripped the sheets off of myself and hopped out of bed and went downstairs, half expecting to see people already down there to congratulate me. I found the other 50% of my assumption correct when I saw only my mom and dad in the kitchen.
My dad was sitting at the table reading the New York Times with a cup of coffee as he always did and my mom was busily getting materials out of the fridge to start breakfast with. Neither of them seemed to notice when I entered the room. It couldn't have been more obvious in my mind that they were either ignoring me or had somehow become deaf over night if they hadn't heard me coming down the stairs. I could always be heard coming up or down the stairs because of how hard I stomped on them. Mom always said it's a wonder that the stairs are still standing with me around.
It now seemed to me I was gonna have to do one of the rare things for me when, as I stood there, neither seemed to want to look up anytime soon so I made my presence known in the room. I cleared my throat and instantly my father looked out from a corner of the newspaper and my mom looked away from the frying pan, where she had just put an egg on.
Seeing me, my mom's face brightened with a smile. Her eyes filled with tears as she came over and hugged me. "My baby," she said clenching me to her as if I were a helpless infant again. "Mom," I said but didn't try to push her away or anything because I was afraid I'd hurt her feelings. Luckily my dad stepped in, "let the boy go Polly," he said. "I can't believe my first-born is 14 already," Mom said letting me go, "seems like just yesterday I held his bottle and rocked him to sleep."
I hated when my mom got like this. It happened every birthday with the 'Oh I can't believe my baby is'- 10, 11, 12, ECT. It happens every year and after that then came the tears. I'm not even gonna tell you what happened when she found out I had started going through puberty. But anyways, she is my mom and although she can be a bit embarrassing at times I love her.
As if my mom had read my mind she seemed to calm herself down and said, "Well you're not a baby anymore but you'll always be my baby." I found my mom's word's surprisingly touching and I hugged her. My dad said nothing and went back to reading the paper. I figured his grudge against me was still being held. He was stubborn but would probably come around during the party…I hoped.