BIRTHDAY

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Alexandria Anderson

   I was playing one of Ludovico Einaudi’s compositions, Nuvole Bianche on our piano when I hear murmurs from the hallway. I stop and turn to where the voices came from and see Andy with Rye and a boy that I haven’t met before.

  “Hi.” Andy sheepishly laughs, waving at me.

  I bite my lip and just smile a little, as I get up from the chair and put the music sheet back to where it should be but before I could put it back; Andy snatches it from my hand.

   “What are you doing?” he asks.

   “I am putting it back.” I say, as if asking him.

   He shakes his head and puts the sheets back on the stand, “We’d love to hear the whole piece again.”

   “What?” I ask.

   “Please, I haven’t heard you play for years.” he says, making me smile and nod.

   “Alright.” I breathe out and fix the sheets on the stand.

   I sit down on the chair again and start to play Nuvole Bianche, which is one of the songs that I really love to play on the piano. After playing it, the boys clap their hands and I just smile a little and look down at the keys; I am honestly not used to drawing any attention to me.

   “May I ask, what’s the title of that composition?” the boy, whom I haven’t met yet, asks.

   “Nuvole Bianche by Ludovico Einaudi.” I answer as I look at him, he has a brunette hair and green eyes.

   “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Andy asks the two lads next to him.

   “Yeah, she is.” Rye answers quietly as he looks at me, but it was loud enough for us to hear what he just said.

   I didn’t know what to say, we were just quiet; taken aback by what Rye said. In a couple seconds, his expression changes – he starts to panic a little and his face turns red. I didn’t know what to do nor say, so I just look down and continue what I was doing.

   “What I mean is, the song, i–it’s beautiful.” he stutters, finally speaking up.

   Andy laughs and shakes his head, “Rye, are you okay?” he asks, which he answers by nodding his head.

   I look at Andy and he was just smiling, as he looks at me then at his friend. I look down and put the sheets back together with the other sheets under the chair.

   “Oh, by the way, meet Brook.” Andy says, breaking the silence as he gestures to the boy next to him.

   I stop what I was doing and turn to them once again. Brook puts his hand out to me and as I put my hand out to shake his, Andy speaks up again.

   “He’s our new trialist and our.. birthday celebrant.” Andy says the last part with a grin.

   “Oh, happy birthday.” I smile, as we shake hands. “I am Alexa.”

   “Thank you and it’s nice to meet you.” he replies in a deep voice.

  “It’s nice to meet you too.” I say and we pull our hands away.

  After putting the sheets back, we all go to the Living room where my Mom is.

   “Mom, we’ll go now.” I tell her.

   “You all take care, okay?” she replies, smiling at us.

   “We will, I love you.” I say and kiss her on her cheek.

• • •

   When we arrive at Westfield, we split up with the group and just walk around the shopping centre. Later on, Andy receives a text from Mikey to inform us where they are. So, we go to the store that Mikey told us to meet with the lads and when we reach the store, we hear Rye and Brooklyn’s voice. It reminds me of before, when Rye and Cam were shouting as they vlog.

   “Hang on, they might kick us out again.” Andy laughs.

  I furrow my eyebrows, I wonder what he meant by that. He looks for the boys around the store and I just follow him. When Andy finally saw them, he puts his finger to his lips to shush them.

   “What is wrong with you?” Andy asks, seriously.

   Rye just shrugs his shoulders.

  “You are always like that in public, you are going to get us kick out.” Andy grumbles.

   We are all quiet and anxious that two lads might argue with each other, but after a couple seconds; Andy and Rye just burst out laughing. However, when Rye saw me; he stops and just smiles a little. We go out the store and we came to a decision to stay at Westfield for two hours or so, so we have time to buy whatever it is that we want.

   “I thought you and Rye were going to argue earlier.” I say, when it’s just Andy and I.

   “What?” he chuckles, looking at me. “Why, were you nervous?”

   “Of course I was.” I reply.

  “It’s all banter, Alexa, and if we ever get into an argument; we aren’t doing it in public.”  he states.

  “Fair point.” I shrug, as we walk into H&M.

  “By the way, we aren’t going home right away.” he says, flicking through the shirts.

  “What do you mean?” I ask.

   “We still have another stop for Brooklyn’s birthday, it’s a surprise.” a smile tugs at the corners of his lips, as he pulls out a shirt and takes a look at it and puts it back into the rack.

   “Oh.” I say, as I nod and start to look for a hoodie.

   “Do you know Darcy Oake?” he asks and moves at another rack of shirts and flicks through the shirts.

  “Hm, I think I heard that name before.” I reply without looking at him.

   “Darcy’s a magician from BGT.” he casually says.

   I look at him, “Oh, the illusionist?”

   “Yeah!” he exclaims, as if someone had read his mind and told him what he was thinking and was able to get it right.

   I laugh, “Excited, are you, Mr. Fovvs?”

   “Oh, I am, Ms. Anderson.” he replies, smiling at me.

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