Across the Hall (girlxgirl)

one

• N a y a •

I didn't know whether to be irritated or excited when my parents and two younger brothers barged into my room at six in the morning to sing happy birthday to me, but as soon as I saw the grins on their faces I decided on the latter.

"Happy birthday my love." My mum, Amara, beamed as she placed a stack of pancakes skewered with 21 sparklers in front of me. Birthday pancakes had become a tradition in our family since my Arab mother was big on celebrations but would rather die than let her kids eat cake in the morning.

"Thanks, guys." I grinned as I sat up, stretching as presents were placed on my bed with demands to open them, even in my half-awake state.

My mum got me a jacket I'd had my eye on and new art supplies, my eight-year-old brother, Omar, got me a rainbow phone case and my four-year-old brother, Ziyaad, gave me a hand-made photo frame of the family (both courtesy of my mum) as well as two drawings which I promised to put on my already cluttered wall.

"So, what did you get me, Dad?" I asked, turning to my dad, Harry, with an excited smile.

"Well put on your shoes short stuff and I'll show you." He grinned and I rolled my eyes as I quickly slid on my slippers that were thrown hazardously next to my bed.

"I'm one-eighty, I'm not short," I mumbled back, my hands going to my long dark brown hair to tie it into a ponytail as we all followed him to the garage door.

"So, I know when I'm old and grey-" My dad started but was soon interrupted by Omar.

"You can go more grey?!" He exclaimed as his hands held his face in shock and I burst into laughter followed closely by my mum. We knew Omar was referring to Dad's salt-and-pepper hair, and beard, the result of a stressful and demanding job.

"You laugh now but just wait until you start working and going grey." He huffed at me and shut me up immediately while the rest of my family continued laughing at my expense. "Anyways, as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted," Dad huffed, reaching down and tickling Omar as he lifted him and put him on his shoulders. "You are now in your last year and we know you've been bugging us about needing something to ride around in. So, your mum and I thought we'd get you this." He grinned as he opened the garage door and I was met with my mum's car, a white Range Rover.

"I'm going to ride in mum's car?" I frowned and he swivelled around and laughed before leading us further into the garage. My jaw dropped in excitement when I saw my birthday present- a black, refurbished, BMW E30 M3 standing in front of me and I was speechless. It was the same model Frank Ocean used for Nostalgia, Ultra and my ultimate dream car.

"So, do you like it?" Dad asked excitedly, and I grinned before giving him the biggest hug I could with Omar on his shoulders.

"YES! Thank you so much." I cheered before running to my mum, nearly toppling over Ziyaad in the process. "Thank you, thank you, thank you," I said before wrapping my shorter mum in a hug.

"You're welcome, my baby." She laughed.

"You guys are amazing," I said sincerely and my mum smiled, obviously relieved by my reaction.

"All right my little munchkins- off to the shower with you two, Dad and I need to talk to Naya quickly and even though it's a special day it's still a school day so off you go, I'll be there in a few minutes." My mum said with an underlying tone of motherly sternness and Z and Omar raced up to their bathroom while I grew nervous. I was hoping not to get into trouble, cause then I wouldn't be able to sneak out later and go celebrate.