A Whole New World

Chapter 18- Happy Birthday & Happy Ending

The next morning, Ally awoke , and rubbed her eyes.
Happy birthday to me...she said in a low voice. Looking in the mirror, she smiled a little more. There's lots to be happy about. she said to herself. You're back home.

She got ready for school and started coming downstairs, wondering if anyone even remembered that today was her birthday after all this mess.

There was no one around. The house seemed empty.
Ohhhkayyy...

On reaching downstairs, she called out "Um, mom...?"

And then Ally nearly got a heart attack as her mom, dad AND Lucas jumped out from behind the sofa and screamed "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!"
Ally, at first shocked, burst out into happy laughter on seeing that all three of them wore party hats, but mainly because Lucas had a party popper in his mouth, which he blew loudly, and threw confetti in the air.

Ally knew that she would never, ever forget that image of her nineteen year old brother ever again.
She ran and hugged her parents, and tried to hug her brother, but he half-pushed her away, muttering"All right all right I've gone enough beyond my limit to last me a lifetime" , but he was smiling.

"Oh-kay. Now  you don't have that much time as you have school, but come eat breakfast. A proper sit-down breakfast, mind you; I've made all your favourite stuff." said her mom.

Ally stomach rumbled.

"Yup. Okay" she grinned.

Breakfast was the best ever. Waffles with maple syrup, marmalade on toast, scrambled eggs, blueberry muffins and coffee - all of Ally's basic favourites.

"Gosh." she patted her stomach after eating.

"Thanks, mom!! Okay, I gotta go...I'll be late for school. The bus is gonna be here anytime soon."

The moment Ally finished that sentence, the doorbell rang, and Buster barked. He'd been given the privilege of eating one waffle along with his regular doggie food.

"I think you should go check who it is, Ally." her dad said, smiling.
Hurrying to the door, Ally opened it and there on her doorstep, stood Rachel, Lily and Theresa. For a few moments, they just stared at Ally.
Ally stared back at them.
Lily almost looked scared.
Then suddenly, Rachel reached out and gave her a big, long hug.
"Happy birthday, Ally" she said. Ally hugged her back.
Rachel pulled back and put her hands on Ally's shoulders. "Let's not allow a small fight to ruin our six year long friendship, shall we?"she asked , and smiled. Ally nodded and hugged her again.
"Happy birthday, Ally" Theresa and Lily said, and she hugged them both too. She had no clue as to what kind of fight "the other Ally"had stirred up here, but all she knew was that she was back home and there was nothing more she could wish for.

Suddenly, Lucas came out, putting on his jacket. "Get ready to go, lil sis. I'm driving." he said.
Ally could hardly believe her ears, and for a second it felt like she was back in the Other world, where Lucas had been such a goody- goody.
She ran back in, grabbed her schoolbag and called goodbye to her parents.
"Bye! Enjoy your day!" came their replies.
Soon, Ally and her friends piled into Lucas's pickup truck, and it sped away to school. On the way, Ally and her friends annoyed the living hell out of Lucas by singing along LOUDLY with "You belong with me" , that was playing on the radio. "I have good reason to drop you off on the middle of the road and make you walk to school" Lucas said after the song was over.
Feeling bad for him (& because one could never tell when Lucas would keep his word), they decided to just chat, and soon reached school. Saying goodbye to Lucas who drove off to college, they hurried in to school.
Classes went on as usual, and lots of people wished Ally for her birthday.
After coming back home and relaxing for a bit, Ally realised that she had a Biology test the next day, and began to study. Dammit. Why on my birthday. She thought, and was learning the functions of Epithelial tissues, when her phone began to ring. It was Rachel.
"Hey Rach" Ally said.
"Hey!! Be down in 10; we're gonna go to the beach to see the sunset. I'm calling Lily and Theresa too."
And she cut the phone.

What.

Ally knew that Rachel was pretty wild, but had she forgotten about tomorrow's test??
Nevertheless Ally thought it would be fun to spend her birthday evening with her best friends. She would study at night.

Changing into distressed jeans and her favourite white top, Ally came downstairs and told her mom about Rachel's plan.

"Go ahead" her mom smiled.

Suddenly the doorbell rang, and Rachel, Lily and Theresa were their on their bikes.
"We're going biking?! Cool!" Ally said, and grabbed her cycle keys.
"I'm bringing Buster along" she told them. Buster loved to run alongside her cycling.

So they started the 20 minute ride to the beach, Buster running along. They reached the parking area next to the shore and locked their bicycles.
As they were walking towards the sand, Ally suddenly saw that not too far away, at the place where there were a few shacks for events and stuff, there seemed to be a party going on.
"Oh look, someone's having a party. Wait..." she trailed off as they went closer, and she recognised a few people from her school.
Ally looked at her friends
"SURPRISE!!"they yelled.
"A surprise party ? For me?? Ohmygod you didn't have to" Ally said, getting teary eyed after thinking about how glad she was to get her friends back.
"Hey hey hey, less teary, more smiley" Rachel said as they started walking towards the party area. The shacks were strung with fairy lights and there were decorations everywhere-  streamers and even dream catchers. A huge banner said 'Happy Sweet Sixteen'. There were cloth tables loaded with very yum looking stuff- bowls of  sodas and fruit punch, trays of muffins, tarts and mini pizzas. People were chilling around, talking and eating.
"That day when we saw you in  Starbucks at the mall, we had gone shopping for all these decorations and stuff and to place orders for the food" Rachel said.
"Yeah and we had gone without telling you anything so imagine our surprise and shock when you caught us red handed!" said Theresa.
"And I overreacted as usual" Ally said, feeling horrible.
"Aw no, its okay. "Lily said and hugged her.
"You guys are the best. I'm so sorry". Ally said.
"Oh its okay. Now come, we have food to eat!!" Rachel said.
Many people wished her a happy birthday again. They were making their way to the food tables when suddenly, Julian came up to her, Erica almost hanging on his hand. Ally ALMOST don't recognise him as she'd gotten so used to his nerd avatar.
"Hey Ally! Happy birthday!" Julian said, and Erica at least had the decency to smile. "Thanks" she said and smiled at them both.
"Hey and how's your leg now?" Julian asked and Erica just looked at him, confused.
"Oh, it's totally fine now. But if I'm ever late again and I fall, I wouldn't even mind the hard metal music at all" she winked at him, and Julian laughed. "See ya around then!" he said. Ally nodded and smiled , and waved as she went to join her friends at the food table. She almost laughed to herself because the look of confusion on Erica's face had been priceless. She was even glad that she and Julian were going to be good friends.

Ally and her schoolmates enjoyed the evening, dancing around , and she was glad to see everyone so happy at her party. Her parents had come too ("Hey! Your parents are too cool not to be invited" Rachel had said), and as Ally watched her mom,dad and Lucas chatting with a couple of guys of her grade who were laughing, she had to agree that her parents were pretty cool.
Lots of people fussed over Buster, who was with Lily and Theresa, and he was the happiest Labrador in town.

The speakers blasted out 'Cake by the Ocean', and very conveniently a huge ,fancy, purple fondant covered cake was brought out. As  Ally blew out the candles and cut the cake the old fashioned way, she was surrounded by her family and friends , singing for her, and Ally was so happy to be back, back to this amazing world that she called Home.

The End

                       ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

Hello!! :D Hope you enjoyed this story! And to those who are reading this now, it means you've made it all the way till here--- thank you!!

Enjoy life and keep smiling :)
xoxo