Hearstopper from the edit room floor

Charlie's birthday - Part 1 THE FORM ROOM

-Nicks POV-
-Wednesday 27th April aka Charlie's birthday-
AN it's a long part

This will be a multiparter basically taking us through Nick and Charlie's day on Charlies birthday each gift will be a part including the parties / things after school 

"Morning, my love," Mum smiled as I wearily but excitedly wandered into the kitchen. "Hiya, Mum. Do you want some coffee?" I offered, flicking on the kettle and looking at her over my shoulder. "I'll take one to go, please; otherwise, I'll be late for work," she admitted. Mum worked at a bookshop and often took the morning shift so she could walk Nellie at a reasonable time in the afternoon and be home before I arrived from school in the early evening. "Mind if I take a cup in for Charlie?" I asked. Mum raised her eyebrow out of curiosity.

"That's a lovely idea, Nick, but can I ask why?" Mum asked as I handed her the cup. "It's Charlie's birthday today, and I wanted to do something special for him. Whenever I get the chance, I have the whole thing planned. Birthdays at school can be dull, but not this year," I announced proudly, lifting up a bag of presents that I had wrapped and bought or prepared for Charlie. Mum giggled, sipping her coffee and hiding a smile. "Nicholas Luke Nelson, you hopeless romantic. Of course, take one for him and wish Charlie a happy birthday from me," Mum smiled, kissing me on the cheek and heading out the door. Instead of putting coffee in Charlie's cup, I made him a hot chocolate, as he didn't like the taste of tea or coffee.

As I busied myself, getting things ready for the day ahead and humming happily to myself, my phone buzzed loudly, and the grin on my face seemed to spread even further. My cheeks were starting to hurt.

Charlie🐱 - morning are you ready for a wonderful 27th of April xx
Nick 🐶 - hmmm what makes today so wonderful anything special happening today I should know of  😜 xx
Charlie 🐱 - haha very funny, where do you want to meet today? Xx
Nick 🐶 - I'll meet you off the bus as usual? or do you have a drum lesson before form xx
Charlie 🐱 - nope lesson is during morning break unfortunately... but I'm all yours until then and after that ;) 

Charlie's text of when his music lesson was made me close my eyes and sigh his lesson being in morning break slightly messed up my plans but I wasn't going to let him know that and it wasn't anything major I had to rethink we would still have a great day I responded with a little:

Nick 🐶 - perfect music to my ears!! ;)
I'll see you soon we're going to have a great day even if we are in school, I love you xxxxx Happy birthday 🥳
Charlie 🐱 - thank you, I love you too! See you soon

Glancing at my phone, my background lit up as I checked the time. My lock screen only made me smile more—a photo of Charlie grinning at the camera, clutching a pillow that lived on my sofa in the lounge. He had a cozy blanket wrapped around his shoulders, and the evening sun framed the picture. In the bottom corner, Nellie's paw was just showing, and the time on my phone read 8:35 am. Knowing I didn't have long before Charlie's bus arrived at school, I quickly fed Nellie and said goodbye to her for the day. I had 15 minutes to reach the school gates before Charlie's bus turned up.

"Alright, Nicholas, special occasion, is it?" Isaac yelled from the other side of the road, waving at me frantically as I reached the entrance of Truham. I grinned at him, and he beamed back, knowing the reason behind my excitement. "Does the 'Happy Birthday Charlie' balloon give anything away?" I jeered jokingly, smiling and looking up at the balloon floating out of Charlie's presents. "So, what have you got him?" Isaac quizzed excitedly. 

Charlie knew my "thing" was personal and sentimental gifts and things people would appreciate and get a lot of use out of  so naturally I had a plan I'd bought him a gift for every period of the day (including form and breaks and lunch) I had the entire day worked out from start to finish and I excitedly explained the plan to Issac