"Do you realise it's been a year since we moved to Carrs Park?" Nathan said conversationally over his cereal, watching as Rachel patiently fed Ruby. "I mean, when we moved here Ruby was so little!" he grinned at his niece, poking his tongue out, and she mirrored him, the yoghurt Rachel had just spooned into her mouth sliding out.
"Nathan!" Rachel sighed in frustration and Nathan tried not to laugh. "Listen, I'm meant to be at Libby's in twenty minutes and I can't if you're sitting there distracting her!"
"You going swimming again?" Ben wanted to know, and she nodded.
"Ruby loves the water".
"I know, I was there at the beach, remember?"
The Rafter family had taken their annual trip to the beach, the memories hitting them hard and fast (they had missed the big beach house the summer before, with a newborn and the moving process trumping the white sand and clear water), and little Ruby had adored the water. She and Rachel spent most of their time on the beach, patting sandcastles and running through the whitewash water, venturing out a little deeper as the day warmed up.
When they returned to Carrs Park, Libby had taken to inviting them to her house every day and more often than not Jake would turn up with Alex in tow. They would splash around in the pool while Libby's parents were at work, before baking in the sun while Ruby napped.
She honestly couldn't think of a better way to spend her days.
"Can't help but notice you've got a birthday coming up", Libby said cheerfully, as she lowered herself into the pool to join Rachel and Ruby and Jake. "Two days before school goes back! What are we doing?"
"Yeah, we're not doing anything. Mum's making a cake, and we're going about our everyday lives".
"We have to do something!" Jake protested. "You're turning sixteen! We all did something for our sixteenths!"
(Rachel was the youngest of the group, celebrating her birthday in late January, while the others had partied throughout the year before.)
"Jake-"
"No, no. it's alright", Libby intervened. "Don't worry about. We'll just ignore it!"
(The only thing she had wanted to do for her birthday was go to the RTA to get her learner's license. While Jake, Camel, George and Libby had all clocked a significant amount of hours in their log books and were all inching closer to their P plates, Rachel was left with the responsibility of a baby and public transport, or relying on her parents.)
Jake held his hands out to Ruby, who squealed excitedly and all but kicked her mother in the head at the prospect of swimming with her beloved friend.
(Libby, the oldest of four, had a variety of pool toys that they all loved, and Ruby's favourite was the blow up ring that she could sit in.)
"So we aren't doing anything?" Jake confirmed, and Rachel shook her head.
"Not this year".
By the time the twenty eighth rolled around (a Wednesday), Rachel had almost forgotten about their conversation that day in the pool. All she knew was that Ben and Nathan had volunteered to watch Ruby while her father took her to the RTA (she wasn't about to sit a test with a baby in the background), and that Julie was making a cake and her favourite dinner for the six of them to share with her grandparents.
"Hey birthday girl, go and get the door!" Ben said that afternoon from the floor, after he heard the knock for the second time. "What am I, your slave?"
Ruby laughed, like it was the funniest thing the boy could have ever said and Rachel glared at the two of them softly, before standing up and heading towards the door (she had been engrossed in the book she had unwrapped from Dave and Julie, knowing that she probably wouldn't get to the end of it before she turned seventeen). Standing up and moving down the hallway (knowing her grandparents weren't due to arrive before six); she opened it to find George, Camel, Jake and Libby at the door.
"Surprise!"
"Happy birthday!"
"You guys!" she laughed. "You shouldn't have!"
"You know Rach, that's exactly what I said!" Libby said in surprise, handing her a gift bag. "We should just ignore you birthday!"
Rachel laughed, hugging the four of them at the same time.
"Happy birthday Rach", Camel laughed, presenting her with something wrapped in pink.
Letting them in but leaving the front door unlocked (knowing her grandparents would come sooner rather than later), she brought them into the lounge room (where Ruby glanced up and came running).
"Hi!" the little girl said excitedly, throwing her arms around Libby.
"Hey guys!" Julie said cheerfully.
Rachel had written off her fifteenth birthday, and from then on, had decided that she wanted nothing to do with parties. But the small celebration that her friends put together was one to make her change her mind.
Spaghetti bolognese with her parents, grandparents and closest friends, with little Ruby helping to blow out the sixteen candles on her chocolate birthday cake. Ruby mashed her hand into the icing before pressing a sloppy kiss to her mother's face, wiping icing on her mouth.
There had been laughter and smiles and memories made, with plenty of photographs to jog those memories when they started to fade.
Rachel knew that it was a birthday she would never forget.
