Downside Up

Chapter Twelve (Youth - Daughter)

My big day was coming closer and my excitement grew because I was finally turning sixteen!

If you are fifteen everyone treats you like a child but at the age of sixteen, I would finally be an equal member of society. Well, not completely equal, because I would still have to wait a few more years until I would be allowed to vote or to rent my own place, but still I would get a lot more respect.

It was only logical that I wanted to celebrate this event – every girl gets a sweet sixteen party but people usually forget about the boys. Which is why I decided to have the most amazing party ever held. Maybe we could rent a club and a DJ and I could play some tracks myself. Surely my parents would check everything first so that there would be no alcohol and everyone was safe, but in a few years people would still be talking about the awesome event I hosted and that was worth it. Everyone can get wasted at their birthday party, but who gets to celebrate in "their own" club? I would. Or at least, I hoped so.

As soon as I knew what I wanted to do for my birthday this year I went to my mum and talked her through my ideas.

When I had finished she finally spoke up.

"Look, Tyde", she said, "I don't want to tell you off, but you have to remember that a lot of our family members are coming around just to celebrate your birthday with you. Even your grandma! And I don't know if she'll feel that comfortable in a club with loud music and flickering lights."

I hadn't thought about that until now, but of course, she was right. My nan was such a sweet person and I would love to have her around for my birthday but a club wouldn't be the right environment. "Okay", I finally spoke up, "so we will have a cute little family dinner party in our back yard?"

She looked at me with an apologetic smile. "I guess that's right. But we can still plan something for the evening. Maybe you, your friends and the younger part of our relatives can go out and your dad and I stay here with your grandma and everyone else that doesn't want to go."

"So we can still rent a club?", I asked excitedly.

"I'll have to talk about it with your father – and we will have to take a look at the prices, but the chances are high that your wish might come true."

I hugged her happily. "Thank you so much! You are like an angel and a fairy godmother all at once!"

She smiled at me and gently hugged me back. "I can't promise anything yet, but we will see. And we will make sure, that you will have the best birthday party you could imagine."

After I told her how thankful I was a few more times, I ran up the stairs to tell Troye, because he was the only other family member that was home.

"Troye", I squealed, "guess what's going to happen on my birthday!"

For a second he looked shocked for no reason, but then he calmed down. "I don't know", he said. "You tell me!"

"We are going to rent a club and I will have the most epic birthday party in the history of boy's sixteenth's birthday parties!"

He laughed and reached out his hand towards me. "Give me five, bro – that sounds awesome! I'm so happy for you. Do you know who you are going to invite?"

"Well", I said, "I want to have as many guests as possible. So I'm going to invite all my friends and they can bring someone as well. Then all the young people from our family are going to come along and I thought that maybe I could invite some fans or "give away" a few invitations."

"Fans?", he asked concerned. "Are you sure that you want to have them at your birthday party?"

I nodded. "Of course – they are such a big part of my life and if they are invited they will not have to stalk me the entire evening."