JaDine Visuals

Teenage phase

James' POV

Sixteen years ago, the love of my life had given birth to our very first bundle of joy and love.

We named her Makaira Alexis Reid.

You see.. Nadine and I's love or I guess you could say, obsession with the Japanese culture never really went away. So you could imagine.. as soon as we arrived home from our baby shower, that had been put together by none other than the squad (mostly the girls), Nadine dived towards her laptop and was all over the web faster than you'd think someone who waddles on a daily basis would be, searching for Japanese names with meanings to them.

After many debates and nights of me sleeping on the couch or "outside the kulambo" as many Filipinos would say, we had come to the agreement that we'd decide and choose what name we'd bless her with, the very moment our eyes fall upon her.

And when that very moment had arrived, despite the pain of Nadine's labour and my worries for her, we had felt immense happiness. The moment we laid our eyes on our very own baby girl who had inherited her mother's twinkling, almond-like eyes, we had come to the decision that we'd name her 'Makaira', which in Japanese translates into 'one who brings happiness.'

But who knew that 16 years later, that very same baby girl who had brought us nothing but happiness and joy the moment she was born, would later on bring me stress and worry.

Stress and worry over the fact that my little baby (16 years later and i'm still very much reluctant to admit that she's becoming a grown woman) had just asked for my permission to attend her very first 'high school party'.

(Okay, either this really was her "first high school party" or this was her first time properly asking for my permission, it better not be the latter)

And we all know that those parties were just an excuse for most teenagers to be able to drink, dance, hookup or take drugs without having to go through the trouble of sneaking into clubs and getting caught.

So you can imagine my immediate answer as soon as she asked..

"No. No way. Never. Nope. No Way. No."

"But.. Dad! All my friends are-" She tried to defend but I was quick to shut her down.

"If you're about to use the 'All my friends are going' excuse on me then don't bother, it'll never work on me."

If she genuinely thought that I was going to let her go to that stupid party, then she obviously didn't know her father well enough.

(Come on, I'm James Reid we're talking about here. I knew all about that kind of party business, I mean maybe not in the same context, if we're talking about generations...but back to the issue at hand..)

In reply to my lecture, she does what probably every teenage girl can admit to doing at least once in their life, she gives me her deadliest glare that very much resembled her mother's, which I have been on the receiving end of, many times in the span of being together for 20 years, and then spits out the ever so classic, "Ugh. Whatever."

Now, of course that isn't all she did, along with this famous catch phrase, she stomped her way up the stairs, all the way to her room.

"You should let Kaira live a little, you know?" Nadine says, with a little smirk threatening to come through that told me me that, she too wasn't all for our daughter going to that party and that she was just teasing. I mean, she wouldn't be Nadine if she didn't take advantage of any situation where she could possibly make fun of me.

"Love, no! That little girl's (que the eye rolling as soon as she hears 'little girl') definition of 'living a little' is doing things that could potentially lead to death, for example that damn party she wants to go to. Living a little should mean going on recreational hikes, admiring the sunrise or sunset, that kind of living!"

All I get in reply is what seems to be a snort of laughter coming from my ever supportive wife.

"Love, kalma! Yung puso mo," she laughs.

What she fails to realise is that when it comes to our daughter, I can never be 'kalma' unless Makaira decides that she never wants to leave the comfort of our home, perhaps for the remaining years of her life, but knowing our daughter? That'll never happen.

So I guess, I'll stay stressed forever.

Authors note —
I know, i'm horrible when it comes to working on speech in my stories with grammar and everything but i'll work on it lmao. I also apologise if the tenses keep changing from part to present, it's also another thing i'll try work on to improve. And with the lengths of these one shots, i'll work on them. But thank you for reading! Shoutout to bluefckingmoon for helping me come up with Japanese names and to everyone who voted on my twitter poll to help me decide the name!