Time Ahead

chapter seventeen

a/n: here's chapter 17! enjoy!

Perrie's POV:

Beep, Beep, I groan. My alarm was going off. I turn it off and check the time, 7:30, way too early. I get up carefully so Alex doesn't wake up and head downstairs. Today is Izzy's birthday, so I decided to make her breakfast before she woke up. I walk over to the cabinet and pull out the pancake batter. I turn the stove and grab some bacon out of the fridge.

Once the food is done, I pour her a glass of orange juice and walk over to the hall closet. I grab the banner, streamers, and a few balloons to set up. I hung the banner at the top of the stairs so you could see it at the bottom. I put the streamers around the poles and on the handrail. Finally I take the balloons and tie them to the chair her food was in front of.

I walk back upstairs and into her room. Opening the door slowly, I see she is still asleep. It's about 8:30 now and her birthday party is at three so I want to spend some time with her before her party. Fighting the guilt of waking her up, I give her a kiss on the head and slowly shake her awake. "Happy Birthday honey," I say quietly. Her eyes flutter open. She smiles when she realizes what I said. "Mama, I'm three!" she says excited. "Yeah babe, you are," I say giving her a hug. "Want to go wake up Daddy?" I ask her. She nods, pulling me into my room. She walks over to Alex and starts poking him. "Daddy," she says. No response. Seeing that it's not working, I pick her up and set her on the bed next to him. She climbs on top of him and says "Daddy," again but louder. He finally opens his eyes and looks up. "Oh, hey babe. Happy birthday!" he says, putting her into his lap. "How old are you? One?" he asks, joking. "Three!" she shouts. "Wow, you're getting so big," he says, looking astounded.

We all walk down the stairs. When Izzy sees her decorations, a big smile forms on her face. I place her into her chair with her food in front of her. She smiles again, picking up the fork and beginning to eat. Alex and I grabbed some cereal and watched her eat happily. "She's amazing," I say to Alex. "She really is, and so are you," he says, kissing me on the lips. I smile, and we walk over to the table.

When we finished breakfast, I cleaned up the dishes and Izzy went up to her room to play. When I finished the dishes, I logged onto Twitter. Happy Birthday Izzy! was trending. I smile, a few tears coming to my eyes. I took a screenshot and went up into her room. "Hey baba, do you want to watch a movie real quick?" I ask her. She thinks for a second, "Ariel!" she shouted. "Okay, come on," I say holding her hand. I start the movie and we lay cuddled up on the coach together. At some point Alex left the spare bedroom, which had all of Izzy's gifts in it, when he was done wrapping them and joined us.

When the movie was over I checked the time. It was about one. "Let's go get ready," I say taking her hand again and walking upstairs. I walked into her closet and grabbed the dress she picked out just for today. It was silver at the top and then faded into green. "I'm going to be just like Ariel!" she said when I put the dress on her. Her birthday party theme was The Little Mermaid, her favorite Disney movie. I put her hair into a french braid. Her blonde hair was getting to be long so she looked a lot like a mermaid. "You look just like a mermaid!" I say to her when I finish her hair, "Go play, your party is going to start soon." I walked down the hall into my room. I'm wearing a gray dress with my hair in waves. I'm going for that beach vibe. "Babe, can you come check this?" I hear Alex shout from downstairs.

When I walked down, the house was decked out in decorations. The kitchen had island themed food, the living room had beach decorations, and the front room looked straight out of a Disney movie. "Wow, it looks amazing!" I say, excitedly, "How'd you do this so quick?" I ask him. "I don't know honestly," he laughs, "I guess I was excited too," he says smiling. I pull him into a hug and the doorbell rings. I glance at the clock. It's not three yet, so it's probably Jesy.

I open the front door to see Jesy and, Chris on crutches, with a big gift in her hand. "Hey! Sorry we're early, I just couldn't wait!"  she says, handing me the gift. "You're fine!" I say putting the gift down, "Do you want some help Chris?" I ask him, helping him through the door. "Thank you," he says smiling. "Not a problem," I say, "Hey Izzy, come down here please," I shout to her. A few seconds later Izzy appears from the top of the staircase, running down the stairs she meets us at the door. "Jesy!" she shouts, giving her a hug. "Hey Izzy! Happy Birthday!" Jesy says back to her. "Thank you," she says running over to me. "When's Jaz and Jolie coming?" she asks me. "They'll be here soon babe, don't worry," I tell her. She looks at me with sad eyes and runs back over to Jesy, who starts talking to her. Izzy and the twins are really close so it's not surprising that she wants them here now.

A few minutes later, the doorbell rings. As soon as I open the door, Jaz and Jolie run inside over to Izzy, who smiles and runs with them into the living room. "Girls, slow down. You can't just run inside!" shouts Jade who is still coming up the steps. "They're fine babe, here," I say offering my arm to her. "Thanks," she says, coming up the stairs. We get inside and join Jesy, who is sitting on one of the couches in the front room. "This place looks amazing!" Jesy says. "Thanks, Alex did it," I say. "Yeah, he did a great job," Jade adds.

Leigh finally arrived, Jacob went to go join the kids in the living room, Andre went to go find Chris and Alex, while Leigh joined us with a sleeping Rhea in her arms. "Aww, she's so precious," I say. Leigh smiles, "Yeah, she didn't really sleep last night so she's tired." Jade nods, "I can second that," she says. "Yeah, you look tired babe," Jesy says. She nods again, "The twins wanted to watch movies last night and wouldn't go to sleep unless we watched some so we were up pretty late," she explained, "I really don't know how I'm going to do it with three," she says, patting her stomach. I rubbed her arm and Jesy rubbed her back.

The rest of the kids who were invited showed up. It was mainly just kids from the neighborhood, her swim class, and some of our friend's kids. "Mama, is it cake time?" Izzy asks me running over. I nod, "Sure babe, we can do that now." Everyone gathered in the living room while I took out her cake. Her cake was a vanilla cake that looked like Princess Ariel sitting on a rock. I lit the candles on it and everyone started singing. When the singing was over, she blew the candles out and smiled, "I made my wish," she said, which made everyone laugh.

After everyone finished their cake, it was time for gifts. She sat on the couch in the living with a big pile of gifts next to her. She started with Jesy's gift, which was a Little Mermaid playset. Leigh got her a big Ariel doll and Jade gave her a blanket that had Ariel on it which she made. "Thank you!" she said, giving each of them a hug. She had moved on to mine and Alex's gifts. We got her some small things but she had two main presents, one was some new stuff she could use in the pool, the other was a bike. She took the cover off of the gift and there it was, her first bike. It was pink and had gold rims and white handle bars. Her helmet had a mermaid design on it. Her face was shocked. "I got a bike!" she shouted. She ran over to me and gave me a huge hug. Doing the same to Alex. "Thank you!" she said. "You're welcome baba," I said, wiping some tears away.

Alex had taken Izzy outside to practice on her new bike. The twins and Jacob were playing with a ball on the porch with Chris and Andre. Leigh, Jesy, and Jade were siting on the couch chatting about random things. As I cleaned up the wrapping paper, I watched Jade. She was absentmindedly rubbing her bump, being really gentle. I thought back to when I was pregnant. It was amazing. I barely had morning sickness, I had a lot of energy, and was just really happy. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to be pregnant again, I think to myself, putting a smile on my face.

a/n: there's a cute chapter! have a lovely day! -honey