Happy Holidays, fellow Sing groupies!

Apologies for the wait on this one, I've had a lot going on these past few weeks between work and pantomime rehearsals. But you can look forward to Steff's birthday gift in the next chapter, followed by Ash and Steff's first Christmas together if I can hopefully find the time to get that one done either before/on the big day or before New Year's Eve.

Until then, hope you like this first chapter!


So far, November the 22nd had proven more joyous for Ash than any previous ones before.

Whenever her birthday rolled around in the past, it followed the usual banal routine of opening a few gifts and a card or two before having a slice of some store-bought cake. The porcupine hadn't had many friends when she was a kid, so the only people who celebrated her special day were whichever family members were still around, Steff and Lance (when he could be bothered). However, the second the porcupine had woken up this morning, she had found her phone flooded with happy birthday wishes from everyone in the Moon Theatre group chat. Soon after, her mother sent her a text inviting her out for a birthday lunch.

Since reconnecting, the two porcupines had made it an occasion to buy lunch together at least twice a month. This time around, Rachel had picked a different food venue, eagerly leading her daughter down a busy street in downtown Calatonia. At last, they rounded the corner and the city's most popular ice cream parlour, Carlo's Frosty Palace, came into view.

"I'm kinda surprised you picked this place for lunch, Mom." Ash admitted. "I mean, you haven't taken me here since I was 14."

"You mean that day after school when you got hit in the face during baseball?" Rachel asked. The young porcupine touched the spot under her right eye, wincing at the memory of the shiner she'd gotten for a week.

"Well I was more skilled at hitting the ball than catching it." She gave a small chuckle of embarrassment.

"And you still love ice cream, right?"

Ash tilted her head with a shrug. "True."

"Then you deserve a sweet treat on your special day." Her mother replied, leading her over the road as soon as there was no traffic.

As they neared the establishment, Ash furrowed her brow at the OPEN sign in full display on the glass door; none of the seats inside seemed to be occupied, nor were there any lights turned on for that matter.

"Uh, are you sure they're open today?"

"Positive." Rachel stepped to the side to allow her daughter first entry, gesturing to the door with an innocent smile. Eyeing her mother incredulously, Ash finally pushed it open and stepped inside. Rachel followed suite, closing the door behind her quite loudly.

The ice cream parlour suddenly burst into life.

"SURPRISE!"

Ash jolted in shock as the lights turned on and Buster, Johnny, Rosita, Steff, Meena, Gunter and Miss Crawly all jumped to their feet behind the counter. A cascade of red, silver and white balloons followed them, floating up and bumping against the ceiling. And strung across the front of the counter was a shimmering banner with the words 'Happy 19th Birthday!'.

Rachel giggled at her daughter completely rooted to the spot, her jaw hanging wide open. Not even her girlfriend running over and giving her a big hug made the porcupine stop staring in dumbstruck wonder. Never in her life had she received a surprise as grand as this.

"Happy birthday, Ash!" Steff said, planting a kiss on her cheek as the whole gang gathered around her with smiles. Finally Ash found her voice.

"Wh… What is this?"

Johnny grinned teasingly. "Really, Ash, we were hoping you'd know a surprise party when you saw one."

The porcupine still couldn't process this. "You did all of this... for me?"

"Of course!" Rosita replied. "There's no chance we're going to miss out on our favourite rock star's big day!"

"We've been planning this for over a month. We all pitched in." Meena added.

"Those balloons with long strings so you can still hold them without your quills popping them?" Rachel pointed upward with a proud grin. "Steff and I came up with that."

Gunter gestured excitedly to the establishment's polished baby blue walls and the menu above the counter. "Ja, and your mother told us zat you totally love ice cream and haven't been in zis place for, like, a looong time!"

"So Mr. Moon convinced Carlo to let us rent out the whole place just for you this afternoon." Miss Crawly said kindly.

"What do you think, Ash?" Buster asked. At last, a grin spreading across her face, the porcupine broke out of her trance and almost knocked the koala over with a tight hug.

"You guys are literally the coolest!" She cried out. She went around the entire group to give them all individual hugs, adding grateful kisses on the cheek for her mom and girlfriend. Everyone then took their seats at the largest table near the window, Johnny and Meena pulling up separate chairs. Ash sat herself in the centre between Steff and Rachel, just as the penguin manager in a dapper apron and glasses waddled over.

"Buon compleanno, Ash!" He exclaimed in a jovial tone, notepad at the ready. "What can I get you and your friends on your special day?" Without missing a beat, Steff handed her girlfriend the nearest paper menu.

"Pick whatever you want. It's on us." The skunk said, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. Receiving nods of encouragement from everyone else, Ash beamed and wasted no time scanning the list of ice creams keenly.

Mere minutes later, the entire troupe were feasting on their chosen sundaes and happily chatting amongst each other, mainly about both Ash's special day and the progress of their upcoming Sleeping Beauty show. In-between bites, Gunter snapped plenty of photos on his phone for the occasion. Ash had gone for the most expensive item on the menu, the Strawberry 'Splosion, even requesting an additional drizzling of chocolate sauce.

Eating a spoonful of her Mountain o' Mint, Steff looked across at her girlfriend contentedly gorging herself on her large dessert with a smile; she could tell this was already shaping up to be the best birthday the porcupine had ever experienced. It was no surprise that Ash was the first to finish her sundae just before everyone else.

"That was some birthday meal." She said, wiping some leftover chocolate in the bowl with her finger and licking it clean. Rachel, Steff and the others all put their spoons down one by one.

"And that was only part of the surprise!" Buster said, jumping down from his seat on the end and dashing over to the counter. He came back out dragging a large red gift bag over to the group. Meena reached down to him and, lifting it with her trunk, placed the bulging bag onto the table in front of Ash.

"What's a birthday without a few presents?" Johnny asked with a grin. Her eyes wide, Ash stood up in her seat and peered into the bag, packed with gifts wrapped in different coloured paper. Noticing a large card slotted down one side, she picked that out first. Drawn in crayon on the front was a giant multi-coloured cake, the words 'HAPPY BERTH DAY' underneath just barely visible under all the glitter.

"You can probably tell that my kids had a hand in making the card." Rosita chuckled at the porcupine brushing some excess glitter off her jacket.

"Well I gotta say, they did a great job." She replied in amusement before opening up the card to read aloud the words inside:

Dear Ash

Words can't describe how proud of you we all are for how far you've come! Hope your birthday this year is rockin'! You deserve it!

And surrounding the message were signatures from everybody sitting around her.

"Aw, thanks for this, guys." She said, standing the card in the centre of the table. Deciding to do a lucky dip, the porcupine reached blindly into the bag and pulled out each present one by one.

Miss Crawly's was the first to have its wrapping ripped. It was a cassette tape consisting of twenty-four classic rock songs from the last four decades. Ash didn't have the heart to explain the gift's outdated nature to the elderly lizard, instead accepting it with a grateful smile. "I'll treasure it always."

Next out of the bag was Buster's. Unwrapping it, her eyebrows raised at the black T-shirt unfurling in her hands, a wolf with a striped suit and wild green hair emblazoned on the front along with the words 'It's showtime!'.

"Whoa, this is cool." She held it up to her body, impressed. "And just my size too. Thanks, Moon!"

"Yep, horror and musical themed!" The koala responded with a grin. "I saw it and thought of you immediately!" Ash rolled her eyes playfully; of course he'd chosen it partly out of excitement for the upcoming stage adaptation.

The next few gifts consisted of a pair of wireless headphones courtesy of Johnny, a light mauve eyeshadow set that Rosita thought would go nicely with her red attire, and a neon lamp shaped like a Wi-Fi signal but with the bars coloured in pink, purple and royal blue, along with the words 'Strong Bi-Fi signal' lit up on the base.

"Gunter, this is awesome!" The porcupine laughed, admiring the lamp's picture on the box.

"Ja, I thought it'd look great in your apartment!"

"Rest assured, the second I get home, I'm setting it up straight away." Ash replied, placing it down on the table with her other presents.

"Don't you mean bi away?" Rachel nudged her daughter's arm teasingly.

"Ugh, Mom, don't." Ash stifled a laugh and gave her a light shove, trying her best to look annoyed. "Moon's dad jokes are corny enough."

Reaching back into the bag, the porcupine pulled out the next large, flat square-shaped present. Tearing the corner of the wrapping a smidge, she gasped at what she saw. Within seconds, she had shredded the rest of the paper, gazing at the vintage vinyl album in her hands in amazement. There was surprisingly not that much wear and tear on it. On the cover was a lion cub in black and white with his paws behind his head, along with a signature scrawled in the top right corner.

"Is this...?"

"Clay Calloway's debut album." Rachel nodded. "Autographed by the man himself."

"It's still in good condition too!" The young porcupine exclaimed, her eyes darting back and forth between her mom and the record. "I… wh… h-how did you…?"

"You wouldn't believe how competitive the online bidding for it was." She replied, fully engrossed by her daughter's astonishment. Ash slowly turned to look at her with a growing smile; the fact that her own mother had gone to a lot of trouble to show she understood something that she loved spoke volumes. It really was a huge departure from Rachel's past dismissiveness of her passion for rock.

"Mom, I... I don't know what to say." She said quietly. "This is just... incredible. Thank you."

Everyone around the table let out a quiet 'aww' as Ash put down the record to wrap her mother in a warm embrace, which she happily returned. Once they had pulled away, Steff reached across the table and pushed the gift bag closer to the porcupine.

"Last one, rock star." She cooed in a sing-song tone. Smiling at her girlfriend, Ash then reached inside and pulled out a very small box neatly wrapped in blue polka-dot paper that fit perfectly in her hand. Gently peeling off the wrapping gently, she then lifted off the lid.

Her eyes widened; nestled on a bed of black tissue paper was a guitar pick. But this one wasn't a standard single colour with a company logo. It had a silver rim that blended into a shaded red centre. And right in the middle, written in a jagged font and coloured in the same hue as the bi flag, was her name.

Ash was too stunned for words; in the two years she'd been with Lance, he had settled for buying her cheap knick-knacks he'd barely put any thought into for her birthdays. For her to receive a gift this small yet so thoughtful from a romantic partner was overwhelming.

"I, uh, couldn't help noticing your guitar pick was looking a little worn so… I had this custom made for you." Steff explained, bashfully scratching the back of her head. "I'm sorry it's not the most exciting birthday gift I could come up with but..."

The skunk was nearly knocked off balance by Ash's lips crashing against hers, followed by her being enveloped in a loving hug.

"I love you so much." Came a choked-up whisper in Steff's ear. Taken aback for a second, Steff tenderly hugged her girlfriend back. Noticing Miss Crawly holding out her napkin, Johnny took it from her and stretched out his arm to hand it to the porcupine. Sniffing, she took it and used it to wipe her eyes.

"Well, sometimes the smallest gestures carry the most meaning." Tempted as she was to scoff at another one of the koala's clichéd quotes, Ash honestly saw some truth to that in this moment. So instead she gave him a small nod as she gently placed the box down on the table.

"Well that just leaves my gift for you, Ash." Meena said, rising from her seat and walking behind the counter. The others all moved Ash's presents to the edges of the table as she tried to see what the elephant was doing.

About a minute later, Meena came back out carrying with a white cake on a tray, nineteen lit candles protruding from the top with a wriggling string of red frosting adorning the edges. She had undoubtedly baked it herself. Everyone immediately began to sing the Happy Birthday song as the cake came closer to Ash. Raising a hand, Rosita gently shushed the table to allow the elephant to soulfully belt out the final lyric. As soon as Meena finished, she opened her eyes to see everyone staring at her in admiration, her ears quickly flattening against the sides of her head.

"Uh, sorry, did I overdo it?" The elephant murmured. Her worries was quickly put at ease by Ash shaking her head.

"Are you kidding, Meena?" She grinned. "If anything, I'd say you made that old song more interesting."

"And now all that's left is to blow out your candles." Steff said excitedly.

"Any wishes in mind?" Rosita asked her.

While Gunter got his camera at the ready, Ash looked around the table. First at her mom, then her girlfriend, and then at all her friends. All the people who had gone to so much effort to make her feel loved and important today. This was a birthday she would always remember. Smiling widely, the 19-year-old knew exactly what to wish for.

"To have more great birthdays like this."

She blew them all out in one giant puff.


If you enjoyed this story, please leave a review explaining why. I love the feedback! Plus free content thrives on interaction and feedback.

The movie Sing belongs to Illumination Entertainment. I only own my OC, Steff Pearce.