Reincarnated ~ A Modern Newsies Au (Nowsies)

9 | Sweet Sixteen

Tony's birthday! I'm so excited for this chapter!

Enjoy! :)

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Tony wakes up on his sixteenth birthday to the sound of his Nonna's beautiful voice.

"Tanti auguri a te, tanti auguri a te," she murmurs, "Tanti auguri a Antonio, tanti auguri a te!"

She kisses his forehead.

"Buongiorno," she smiles.

He smiles back. "Buongiorno, Nonna."

She's one of the only ones to call him Antonio, which is the full name he chose; after his great-grandfather. He mostly goes by Tony everywhere else because that's the capacity most American minds can handle. Not with Italian grandparents.

He is so glad that he convinced his parents to let him stay at his grandparents' house last night.

Because he got to go to sleep last night to Nonna singing a ninna nanna--a lullaby. And Italian lullabies are the most beautiful there are.

And he gets to wake up to this.

Now Nonno enters the room. "Tanti auguri!"

Tony sits up now. "Grazie, Nonno!"

"Your friends will arrive in the afternoon, yes?" Nonna asks.

Tony nods. "I told them one o'clock."

He's so glad that his grandparents agreed to host his birthday party.

And that he'll share this wonderful house with his friends; even if it's just for an afternoon.

These are the perks to a Saturday birthday. He'll enjoy it while it lasts.

"I have all the ingredients out for the cake," Nonna tells him. "I'm ready to start making it when you are."

Tony smiles. That's what he loves about Italian birthday traditions: he's the one who picks out or makes the cake, meaning the cake will be how he wants. And he can't bake much, but baking a cake with his Nonna is one food that he will bake.

However, if they were in Italy and eating dinner out, he'd be the one to pay for dinner. So there's another reason why the food's going to be made at home.

"Alright, I'm up," Tony tells her. "Give me a minute to get dressed and I'll be right out there."

After his grandparents leave the room, Tony checks his phone. Every single one of his friends (including David--recently added to everyone's contacts via being added to the big group chat by Jack--which was nice) texted some variation of HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! at many different times. Charlie even made it do the thing where the message sends with balloons. And of course, there's Sean's texts.

Buon compleanno Tesoro! <3

Can't wait to see you at 1:00!

Tony smiles. It warms his heart to see Sean putting in an effort when it comes to acknowledging Tony's Italian heritage. 

He called me Tesoro.

That's still relatively new, but Tony absolutely loves it.

It's so funny to Tony to see the difference between his grandparents wishing him a happy birthday and Sean wishing him a happy birthday in Italian. Sean used buon compleanno, a direct translation of happy/good birthday. His grandparents, however, said tanti auguri, which is best wishes/congratulations, which can be used under many different circumstances, and is more common and/or popular to say.