Never Fly Too Close To The Sun

"Action" (urban dictionary)

28th October (3 Days Before Halloween)

"Happy birthday kiddo!!" a deep voice is then joined with that of a shrill, higher-pitched one to proceed into,

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR-"

Groaning, Beca sat up & rubbed her eyes clean of sleep dust before glaring at the two grinning figures in front of her.

"See, I told you that would get her to respond," Beca's Dad whispered loudly to the woman stood beside him."

"Now for prezzies!" The woman cried happily, leaning forwards and plopping a pile of neatly wrapped packages from her long-nailed claw-like hands onto Beca's lap. Rolling her eyes at her step-Mum's enthusiasm, Beca grabbed one and brought it closer. Then, she hesitantly stopped to say, "Thanks you guys, you didn't have to. I told you I don't like the attention or you wasting your money."

"Aww," Sheila smiled, "It's not a waste of money seeing our little girl growing up! Now, open them!"

Beca opened her mouth to make a retort about being called 'our little girl' by Sheila (who was actually only 12 years older than Beca, and closer to being her age than her Dad's) but was met with her Dad's warning glance so decided against it. Also, she remembered Sheila was only acting like the caring mother Beca lacked completely - she always has yogalates on a Tuesday mid-morning. And, of course, Sheila couldn't miss her weekly 2 hour session of standing among a crowd of gawking middle-aged women as they stare in awe at the attractive young (and probably gay, let's face it, Beca thought) male instructor-guru person. Snorting at her memory of once having met the pink lycra-clad instructor with the fake orange tan and bright white teeth when she was forced to shop for school equipment in the Summer holidays with the step-monster, the sleepy-eyed teenager started to unwrap the box on her lap.

The brightly-coloured spotty wrapping paper came apart with ease as the brunette's spindly fingers reached under the gaps and pried it open. With a few swift motions, the paper fell to the floor beside the bed and Beca's eyes widened in surprise at the object lying in her hands. Speechless, she stammered, "I..err..th..thanks Dad..and umm..Sheila." Her Dad beamed before replying, "Sheila thought you'd love it - it was her who spotted it at the store and thought of you," he nodded his head in a gesture to the now widely grinning blonde in front of Beca's bed.

Sensing her opportunity, Sheila open her bright pink lip-sticked mouth and started to blurt into her story, heavily bangle-covered arms waving dramatically, "So, like Benjamin said, I saw it when I was out shopping with the girls. Karen made us stop in this geek area so she could look at the kinds of nerd gaming stuff they had for, like, PCs and computers and the big engines which power them, you know?" Beca smirked at her step-mum's clear stupidity and lack of understanding for computer hardware, or even the fact that a PC and computer are the same thing..but the peroxide blonde must have misinterpreted Beca's smirk for encouragement so she proceeded her gabbling, "Yeah, so while Karen looked for a present for her son Stanley (she likes to give him presents for, like, swimming or something) Jane and I looked nearby at their trendier stuff," Beca's eyebrow involuntarily raises, amused at what Sheila finds 'trendy', "And then," She continues without noticing the girl's response, "We saw this HUGE sign saying something like 'Make the best, with the best - beats audio' and I said to Jane how you did so well in your last exam for music despite you saying how bad your stuff at home for it was. She then said how, you know, you kinda need good headphones to be able to listen to what you make, etc so we checked 'em out. I know you're into the whole darker colour scheme thing, so we looked for a bit and found those ones and I just thought they would be perfect! I mean, I could totally see you hunched over that mini keyboard," she used her flailing arms to gesture to Beca's small and worn keyboard on her desk across the room, "creating, like, actual music!" Proudly, she took a deep breath to fill her now exhausted and well-used lungs. Beca smiled, half impressed at the lady's ability to make such a short story into a speech, but also (though she would never admit it) because the woman's clear attention paid to the Brunette in their usual 30 second conversations warmed the bottom of Beca's heart. Wait, Beca realised her affection towards her step-mum and shook her head as if it would shake the absurd feelings away.