"Happy birthday!" the voices chant from all sides.
Groggily, my eyes flutter open. I filter through the crowd in my room. Six faces surround my bed. Mom, dad, gran, Clair, Seth, and Rina.
"How old is the beautiful princess, today?" an old voice beckons.
Gran, I'm four, I think. My eyes water as I sit up, both from exhaustion, and from the pain. Born first, yet I'm the youngest.
"Yeah! How old is my older twin?" Seth sings, his dark bangs dancing against his forehead as he sways happily.
"She's not older," Rina spats. "She's the youngest one here."
I roll over at her words. Youngest. Yeah. I choke back my tears, not allowing them to flee.
"Rina!" my mother gasps. I hear my mother smack her.
"Ow!" Rina yelps.
"Just because Ren was born on a leap year doesn't mean she isn't sixteen, Serina!" I hear Claire's voice ring out.
"She's only four today! How is she-"
"I'm sixteen because I was born first," I snap at my sister as I sit up.
She takes a step back in surprise. "You've never-"
"I know I've never spoken to you that way. But I'm done with your crap." I raise my dark eyes to meet hers. They're filled with shock.
The room grows into a tense, awkward silence. But Seth being the idiot he is, laughs, breaking the tension.
"Now that's what I'm talking about!" He smiles and throws a fist in the air.
My mother grins. "Let's go get cleaned up everyone. We need to give Ren her birthday present." She shoos everyone out, forcing them to go to their rooms to get dressed.
I slide out of bed and grab my towel. The green fuzzies rub on my arm, irritating me. I walk into the beige bathroom and toss the towel on a hook labeled, Serenity, in sloppy six-year-old writing.
I tweak the shower on and strip to get in. The cool water feels nice and wakes me up instantly. A refreshing way to start the day.
***
I walk down the stairs, braiding my long, white hair. I'm greeted by the famous birthday song being sang by my family and the lights in the house out. Only source of light was candles that flicker on the cake my mother and father held.
"Sh," I say, putting a finger to my lips. "I'll get a headache." I rub my temples. I hear it over seven times a year. Add an extra time for every four years. And every time I hear it, I get a headache. It's such an annoying song. And having so many cousins, and living with six people, I hear it basically year round. I'll hear it - and sing it - tomorrow for Seth.
The group stops singing and simply smiles. My dad helps my mom hold the cake out towards me. It's white and glimmers beneath the light of the lit candles.
"Happy birthday, Serenity," my mom says.
I grin and close my eyes. I wish something came along with being a leap year baby, I think, concluding my birthday wish by blowing out the candles perched on the cake.
"What was your wish?" Serina asks.
"If I tell you it won't come true, now will it?" I smirk.
YOU ARE READING
Leap Year
ActionThere's a world unknown to the common man. There's a war happening outside of the walls of the houses we call home. A group of elite forces come together to protect us and to keep us from knowing about the war. My family knew about the war. Everyone...
