The Gift

The Box

After the celebration we move into the house. Sat in the corner, away from the large box, is a pile of unwrapped gifts. I like it that way, cos it seems babyish to be excited to tear off paper from a hidden object. I have a look through the gifts and find something I've wanted for a while. Not a computer, but a playstation VR. I grin at mum and she smiles back. My friends, including Liam and Olivia, crowd round to look at it. John and Paul, two of my friends, smile. They love electronics and have always wanted to see how they work. The rest of my gifts were good, but nothing could top the VR in that pile. We had food and everyone started filing out to go home, including John and Paul. That left me, Liam, Olivia and mum in the house. I had forgotten all about the large box until I walked past it. I saw that it was wrapped in a bright blue wrapping paper. I grinned and looked at the tag. "To Michael. Love mum" I read out loud. I pulled the box off the table, nearly dropping it from the weight and took it into the living room. "I see you found your surprise gift" Mum says, beaming. "It was pretty hard to miss" I state as Liam and Olivia crowd round it. I rip off the paper and look at a plain white box. I grin and open it. It's full of balled and ripped up paper. I instantly push my hand into the pile of assorted peices of paper. Mum did this last year with my xbox, she put it into a box full of paper and hid it in one of the corners. I place my hand around a box, no bigger than a folder, and pull it out. "Woah...I've never seen a computer this small" I say. "That's because it's a laptop, you idiot" says Liam, laughing hard. Even Olivia giggles. I blush in embarrassment and pull off the top of the box, revealing a slim laptop and charger. The logo, an eagle in a ring, flashes a light blue and reflects the room. Olivia stands up "I really need to go" she says. "Same" says Liam, standing up and giving me a high five. Olivia gives me a hug and walks from the house. I smile at mum and give her a huge hug. "Thanks mum" I say. She just smiles and walks into the kitchen to clean up.

I ran upstairs and plugged my computer in to charge it but the port was shut. I couldn't find anywhere to open it up so I just turned it on. The laptop came on and started up. I set it all up with a password and username, too excited to speak through the whole thing. I grin as the screensaver pops up and realise that all of my favourite games are already on the computer and it's fully charged. I resist the urge to punch the air and jump up and down. I stay on the laptop for the rest of the day and sleepily get into bed. That night I have bad dream after bad dream after bad dream. They just keep on coming and waking me so I can't get any sleep. After the fourth time I wake up I look at the laptop and, I swear, the Eagle's blue eye was staring right at me. I just assume it was my imagination and lay back down to go back to sleep. I finally fall asleep after ten minutes and dream about nothing, nothing at all. I'm grateful in the morning and look at my bedside clock. The time was ten past six in the morning. I sigh and stand up from the bed and pull some clothes on. Yesterday was so blurry to me I didn't realise my room looked different. A lot different.