Riley woke up excited, she had set her phone to go off at five minutes to six, so that she would be awake for the exact moment she had been born. She really wanted sixteen to mean something mainly because the last time they had tried a surprise sweet sixteen, everything went down the drain. She remembered Maya's sixteenth birthday earlier in the year, she didn't want to make a big deal so they all stayed up all night in Farkle's penthouse and played video games and danced around. It felt so normal and fun at the same time. Josh had sent Maya a picture of the two of them framed with the word someday carved on the back. He had given her hope for their someday even if Zay had insisted that Maya go out and explore other relationships instead of waiting for Josh.
She watched as everyone aged up, Lucas now seventeen with a junior license so he could drive them around as long they made it back by curfew. Zay and Farkle both worked on getting their licenses with Lucas' help, while they all watched in horror as Farkle almost crashed the car into a tree. Smackle's sweet sixteen had been a dinner at a fancy French Resturant on 65th street, because Farkle wanted her to have a special day, her parents as well as his were there along with all of their friends.
Riley didn't want a big party, she only wanted her friends, her boyfriend, and her family. She wanted dinner at home prepared by her mother and a cake from her favorite Italian bakery with strawberries on top. As the clock turned to six in the morning she jumped up and did a dance, she was officially sixteen, and instead of everything changing the way they had feared, it had all just gotten better. They grew together and it was the best gift she could ever ask for.
She walked into her closet and pulled out a dress her Aunt Morgan had sent her for her birthday, the dress went just below her knees, and it was a dark purple color, it came with a dark sweater to go over it, and Riley pulled out a pair of knee high black boots that her Grandmother Amy had sent to her. The outfit was perfect for her to go to school in, and she was happy about it. She skipped to the bathroom and took a quick shower before going back to her room to do her hair.
Her phone rings as she puts the finishing touches on her hair but as soon as she picks it up the caller hangs up. The number says unlisted so she leaves it to be someone who dialed the wrong person and finishes putting herself together. As she skips to the dining room she smiles as she sees her mother making breakfast and gives her a kiss.
"Good Morning Riley," her mother says turning away from the stove. "Happy Birthday sweetie."
"Thanks Mom," she says hugging her mother.
"There she is," her father says from the hallway. "My baby girl is sixteen today." He rushes towards her and gives her a bear hug lifting her up off the floor before putting her down and rubbing his back. "You're not as light as you used to be."
"Yeah, and I'm also not seven," she laughed as she watched him sit down on his chair. "You have to stop doing that or one day you're going to break your back."
"Yeah whatever, I'm going to do that until the day you get married, you'll be forty when that happens right?"
"No," she said smiling. She didn't know when she would get married but she wasn't going to wait that long.
The door to the apartment opened just as her brother slammed himself into her side taking all the air out of her lungs. He was getting bigger every day and it amazed her how grown up he was.
"Happy birthday Riley," he said to her.
"What's up Matthews," Maya said from the door before she came over to Riley. "Happy Birthday Riles."
"Alright breakfast is ready," her mother said making them turn around. They all sat down for breakfast and talked like they always did, about the weather, about school, and about Riley's birthday dinner. It was only family and friends, so it would be a small party but it was what she wanted the most, and her parents knew that.
When Riley and Maya made it to school Riley was skipping everywhere, they walked up the hole and Riley smiled. "This year has been a good year Maya," she said as they walked up the stairs. Riley stopped to look at the shoes the girls were wearing, but Maya kept walking ignoring Riley's morning routine. As she made her way to Maya, she tripped on someone's shoe but before she could apologize the person was gone.
"Riles, stop..." Maya stopped noticing that Riley was on the floor. "You haven't been this klutzy all year what happened."
"I tripped on someone's shoe," Riley smiled at her best friend. "It was bound to happen at some point since there's so many people in this school."
"Come on let's get our stuff for class," Maya said helping Riley up off the floor. Maya walked off to her locker, leaving Riley at hers by her dad's classroom.
When she opens her locker a bunch of balloons come flying out, in the middle there's a note, Happy Birthday Princess Dancing Sunshine, she automatically knew it was from Lucas because he's the only one who knows that nickname.
"Happy Birthday Riley," Lucas' voice pulls her away from the locker to see him standing with a bouquet of flowers, white and purple all over. He leans in a kisses her on the cheek, smiling at her.
"Thank you Lucas," she said trying to hide her blushing face.
"I have fourteen more surprises for you, I wanted to give you a birthday you would never forget so I figured you needed sixteen surprises."
"You're the best boyfriend ever," she said smiling, as she took his hand and linked their fingers together.
Throughout the day Lucas gave her small little surprises, during her class with her father he had put a small purple cat on her desk with a little purple ribbon. The next time they had class together, he put a hand drawn picture on her desk of the two of them, it wasn't a perfect drawing put it was perfect to her. The last class they had together he had given her a bracelet made of leather that he had woven together. When she went to her locker at the end of the day to get all of her little gifts she smiled when she saw a framed picture of their first date in middle school.
He stood next to her smiling with a birthday bag in his hand. "I thought you might need this," he said smiling.
"This day has been so perfect," she told him and he smiled. They put everything in the bag and Lucas took it and held onto it as they walked towards her mother's café.
"Come on," he said pulling her inside. The café was empty, their friends nowhere in sight but she didn't care that they weren't studying together. They had all wished her a happy birthday throughout the day and told her that they would be at her party that night. Lucas' next surprise came in the form of a sandwich, a soda and a slice of chocolate cake for them to share.
"I promised I would if you asked, but you never asked," he said as he put half the food in front of her. "So I figured we could do this as your next surprise along with this impromptu afternoon date."
She smiled at him and nodded, it was two gifts at once and she loved it. She got up and sat back down next to him in the booth, taking his hand and laying her head in his shoulder.
"Okay the ninth surprise is this," he said and gave her a kiss on her lips, pulling away with a smile. "It's small but I thought we'd try to have a little more public displays of affection."
She couldn't help but smile. "I wouldn't mind that either, maybe one day we can even sit in the back of the movie theater and make out," she teased him but noticed how his ears turned red.
"One day," he said. "Now eat up the next surprise is uptown and we have to get there and back before your party."
The two of them ate and smiled at each other throughout their meal, before he grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the door. "Maya's mom said that she's going to take our stuff to your apartment," he said smiling.
"How long have you had this all planned?" Riley asked thinking about all the work he had put into this.
"A while," he smiled. They rushed off to the subway and took the D train to Rockefeller Center. Riley smiled as she saw the Christmas tree lit up in front of her, Lucas pulled out his phone and took a picture of her smiling, because he knew the one time of year she loved the most was Christmas time. Her birthday was so close to the holiday that it automatically made everything he wanted to do with her absolutely perfect.
"This is fantastic," she said as she looked at the tree.
"Come on, we have to now go ice skating," he smiled. Her face lit up in front of him and he knew it was the perfect idea.
The two of them skated around the rink not too long afterwards, she giggled as Lucas danced with her on the ice. "This is perfect," she yelled as he held onto her.
When they finished they walked off towards Bryant Park to see the shops they had set up around the park, it was dark outside but the park was lit up for the holidays. They walked around and Riley made a mental note to come back and buy everyone's presents there because all the shops had something different. They stopped by an ornament shop and Lucas talked to the woman at the register as Riley looked at all the glass ornaments.
"This is for you," he said once he finished chatting with the other woman. He handed her a small bag with a box on the inside. When she pulled it out she saw a small glass star, inside of it was Pluto.
"Oh my god," she said looking at it.
"They make custom ornaments," he said smiling at her. "And I've always wanted to give you the world, instead I decided to give you hope for one world."
She didn't want to cry but she couldn't help it as the tears came down, she smiled at him. "It's perfect."
They walked off towards the train station to go back to her house, so far everything was perfect, the only bad thing that had happened was her tripping earlier in the day. When they walked up to her block Lucas stopped her before they got to her house.
"I want to give you one more present before we go upstairs," he said as he moved forward. "Because if I do this in front of your dad he would kill me."
"Lucas what is it?" she asked wondering what he had planned.
Lucas pulled her close and kissed her cheek before placing both of his hands on her face and bringing his lips closer to hers, he kissed her softly at first before deepening the kiss. She could feel nothing but the heat from his hands mixed with the cold breeze of late fall, mixed with the smell of cedar and musk. His tongue traced the outside of her lips slowly asking for permission before she opened her mouth and let him inside of her mouth. This kiss was different from all of the others, it made her toe tingle, as her heart began to race. She finally felt that fire everyone had kept talking about when they swore that Maya and Lucas would be better together, but it wasn't the same fire, this was more of a slow burn that took over her whole body.
When he pulled away she looked at his eyes and saw the same thing she felt, it was real, what they had for one another. At that moment her hope for her life with Lucas became something she wanted to hold close to her heart.
"That was perfect," she said for what felt like the millionth time that night but everything had been.
All of a sudden she heard cheers from her apartment, as she looked up she saw her friends all sticking their heads out of her living room window as they cheered on the couple.
"Come on, let's go to your party and have some fun," Lucas said taking her hand. She missed the warmth of them on her cheeks but her face was burning from the fact that they had been caught kissing.
As they walked into the apartment she looked around and saw that her family had decked it out in purple and gold balloons, her grandparents stood in the kitchen smiling at them, her friends were still at the bay window along with her Uncle Josh who was sitting next to Maya. Her parents were standing next to the couch with her Uncle Eric, while Shawn and Katy sat on the couch. This was her family and she loved them all.
"Let's party," she said smiling at everyone. She slowly made her way through her aunts and uncles, hugging them each, she kissed her grandparents before moving towards her friends and pulling them all into a group hug.
"Bay window," Maya said smiling. "Bay window right now."
Her best friend dragged her to her room and sat her down at the window, smiling at her. "So what do I owe this meeting?" Riley said smiling.
"I want to give you your birthday present," Maya said as she pulled out a small box. "I worked at the café for a few days over the summer to save up for this, my mom and Shawn helped pay for it too, it's a gift from all of us."
Riley took the box and opened it revealing a necklace with the letter R on it, when she looked up she couldn't help but smile at Maya. It was the first time since they had met that the blonde had given her a real present and not just herself.
"I wanted to say thank you Riley," Maya said smiling. "For everything you've ever done for me, and I know that sometimes I don't show it, and sometimes I do things that hurt you, I just wanted to let you know how much our friendship means to me."
For the second time that day Riley was crying, "I love it," she said to Maya smiling.
She heard someone clear their throat from the door, as she looked over she saw Farkle standing in the doorway. "I think we should all give Riley her presents all at once or else she's going to keep crying and we'll never get through the rest of the night," he said as he walked in. Zay, Smackle, and Lucas filed in together.
"Okay," Riley said looking at her friends, her make shift family that had slowly come together over the years.
"Okay me first," Zay said stepping up to Riley and handing her a box wrapped in purple paper. She quickly opened it and revealed a box full of cookies. "They're from my grandmother, I asked her for them as a present. I know that I didn't really let go of the fact that you ate my cookie, but I think that it was really the first time that the two of us had something going that wasn't forced by the group. The reason I let it go on for so long is because in a weird way it was our thing."
"I'm next or else Bubbles will start crying again," Smackle said handing Riley another box, inside was a picture of Riley, Smackle and Maya from middle school, when they had given Smackle a make-over. "That was the first time you let me into your circle of friends, and now I'm grateful for it because I wouldn't have Farkle in my life otherwise, and I wouldn't have you as a friend."
"Aww," Maya said as Riley wiped tears from her face and pulled Smackle to the bay window and hugged the genius.
"Okay my turn," Farkle said. He walked out into the hallway and brought back a box and placed it on her bed. "Open it," was all he said. Riley got up and walked to her bed, slowly opening the box revealing a small planetarium lamp. "It's so you can always have Pluto nearby," he said as Riley pulled him into a hug, her friends all moved towards them and hugged her while Lucas stood to the side and smiled.
"Come on Lucas you turn," Zay said.
"Lucas has already given me a million gifts you guys," Riley said but Lucas pulled out another box.
"I have three more," he smiled handing her the box.
She set it down on the bed and opened it, inside was a photo album, and another box. She opened the album and saw nothing but pictures of them all. Her friends, Lucas and her holding hands, their first dance, everything. She was still crying as she opened the smaller box revealing a Pandora bracelet, with one charm on it, it was a heart.
"This is too much," she said looking at it.
"Not really," he said. "My mom loves those charms so she had gone to buy a couple of them and had gotten the bracelet for free. She wanted you to have it because if it weren't for you, and your big heart I don't know where I would be today. I got the charm a few days afterwards."
"Gosh these kids are so cute," Maya said smiling at them.
"Geez Lucas how many things have you given her today?"
"So far fifteen gifts," he answered.
"But she's turning sixteen, so aren't you missing one?" Farkle asked.
"Oh god no more or else I'm going to be a mess," Riley said looking around at her friends.
Lucas smiled at her, "The sixteenth is a movie date, you can pick the day we go and what movie we see. Just the two of us."
Riley thought back to what she had said earlier, about them sitting in the back of theater making out and felt her face flush. Maya looked between the two of them and started laughing.
"Oh man, Matthews is going to freak," she said.
"What do you mean Maya?" Zay asked.
"Well, all of their dates since they started going out have been supervised... by us but now Huckleberry over here wants to take her out alone," she said smiling. "Just the two of them."
Everyone in the room started laughing, as both Lucas and Riley blushed.
"Come on kiddos time for the party to go into full swing," Josh said from the bedroom door.
The six teens walked back to the living room all laughing and smiling, Riley walked up to everyone in her family and talked to each of them about their lives, smiling when she heard that her grandparents were going on a cruise for the holidays. Laughing when her Uncle Eric told her that he wanted to be mayor again because he missed his little town life. Hugging her parents for giving her the world, and her Uncle Shawn who had made Maya and her mother a part of their family. When they sung happy birthday and she blew out the candles she wished that everyone else had a good year, because she had already had the best year she could have ever asked for.
Lucas' Gifts to Riley
1. Balloons
2. Flowers
3. Purple Cat
4. Drawing
5. Leather Bracelet
6. Framed Picture
7. Food
8. Date
9. Kiss
10. Rockefeller Center.
11. Ice skating
12. Ornament
13. Make-out Kiss
14. Photo album
15. Pandora bracelet
16. Movie Date