𝐮𝐧𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 | 𝐝.𝐦

𝟎𝟓

Kaimana Valencia | December 1995

"Oh, thank you, darling." Kaimana smothered Zaiyah's cheeks with affectionate kisses.

Zaiyah had babbled and the word 'mama' had made it somewhere in there. Kaimana took it as a 'happy birthday, Mama.'

"Mama's twenty now," Kaimana said to her baby. She laid on her bed and Zaiyah laid on her stomach on her mum's chest. "Can you believe that? Twenty. I'm getting old, aren't I?"

Zaiyah replied with another incoherent babble, but she spit up a little bit this time.

"Oh my." Kaimana chuckled and reached over to the other side of her bed for Zaiyah's swaddle wrap to wipe her spit.

Kaimana looked to her right, where Meleah's bed was empty. "Mel?" Kaimana called out as she held Zaiyah to her chest. "Meleah, are you here?"

And only a few seconds after, her door swung open and all her mates poured into her room with balloons, a breakfast tray, a mini cake, and party hats, and noisemakers, and confetti poppers.

Confetti poppers popped and flew around, balloons flying to the high ceiling and noisemakers filling Kaimana's ears. She was blushing with pure happiness as she held Zaiyah on her lap.

"For she's a jolly good fellow! For she's a jolly good fellow!" all her friends chanted in unison with such purity and bliss in their voices. "For she's a jolly good fellow! Which nobody can deny!"

"Happy birthday, Kai!" They all finished off with laughs and smiles.

"Thank you." Kaimana smiled at them and stood to hug them all, but she was quickly ushered back to her bed, forced to sit back down.

"No. You're supposed to sit in bed while we do this," Cardin told her as he set the breakfast tray next to her. Waffles with syrup drizzled on it and diced fruit and a cup of matcha tea.

"Right, right." Kaimana nodded and put Zaiyah back on her lap. "Well, thank you for this. This really is wonderful."

Her friends all said their responses back, all gathering around her double bed. They wore party hats, and Kehlani had come around to Kaimana to put one on her and Zaiyah.

"Shit, Valencia, you're old," Jaxon said, shaking his head with a noisemaker hanging lazily between his lips.

"She's the youngest out of all of us, you idiot." Meleah smacked the back of his head, which he winced to.

"You're lucky your birthday's on a Saturday, Kai," Flynn said as he set gift bags on the side of Kaimana's bed. "Mine was on a Monday. Horrible."

She chuckled and shook her head with such an earnest smile. "You guys really didn't have to do all this," she said honestly, putting Zaiyah next to her since she was getting squirmy.

Zaiyah crawled to the breakfast tray, and before she could knock over the hot cup of tea, Cardrin moved it to the nightstand. Zaiyah continued to dig her baby finger into the bowl of diced fruit, trying to eat them with her two front baby teeth.

"Today is the big two-oh, Kai. Of course we had to celebrate big." Elijah smiled at her, his dimple making its appearance.

"Well, thank you," she said with an elated smile, and took Zaiyah back into her arms before she could knock over the same bowl of fruit.

"So, how's it feel to finally be twenty?" Meleah asked, jumping in bed with her roommate.

"I feel the same honestly. But probably because I've only woken up," Kaimana said and she saw Kehlani smack Jaxon's hand away from the mini cake Quinn was holding. "You guys are more than welcome to eat the food. But I don't know if you'll want to eat the fruit after Zai stuck her fingers in them."