I felt something sit on my bed. Slowly slowly it came closer and closer to me.
"Natalie..." A familiar voice sang as I was smothered with kisses.
"Come on brithday girl... Wake up..." Jai sang as he continued kissing me all over my face. I tried to hide my smile but it didn't work.
"I know you're awake angel. Come on. Open your eyes. I need to see them." He whispered right in my ear as he began nibbling on my earlobe. I giggled and opened my eyes to see his beautiful smile.
"Happy birthday gorgeous." He smiled leaning forward for a long and passionate kiss. We pulled away and I sat up.
"Maybe it should be my birthday everyday." I laughed. He stood up and held out his hand for me. I took it and he pulled me out of bed and into his arms. He wrapped them around me tight and held me for a while.
I loved being in his arms. I felt so safe and secure. But most of all, I felt loved.
"I'll be back. I'm gonna go have a shower." I told him as I grabbed my outfit (pic). He sat down on my desk chair and began going through my books.
"Have you seriously read all of these?" He asked.
"Cover to cover. Some of them even multiple times." I explained. He looked through the rest of my books until he found my notebooks. I've got so many of them. They're all full of stories, ideas, poems, songs, notes, reminders, thing I have no idea of what they mean. I always have a notebook on me.
He began flicking through them as I went to have a shower. I got dressed, brushed my teeth, straightened my hair and half way down with my make-up when I noticed Jai standing in the doorway.
"Why do you wear make-up?" He asked and he came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist.
"I guess it's like a security thing. Jus a few touch ups here and there and I feel alright to go out." I explained. He took my little brush out of my hand and turned me around to face him.
"You don't need any of that. You're beautiful." He whispered. I blushed and he laughed.
"You definetely don't need blush." He joked. I laughed and then turned back around to quickly finish up before going walking into the lounge.
"Happy birthday bitch!" Sydney shouted as she ran up me and hugged me.
"Thanks Syd. I can always rely on you for my daily compliments" I laughed as I hit her arm.
"Happy birthday!" Mum and dad shouted in sync as they came up to me and hugged me so tight I couldn't breathe.
"Can't. Breathe." I gasped as they hugged me tighter. They laughed and finally let go.
"Yay! Now you're finally 18!" Sydney cheered as we began doing a happy dance together. We all laughed and mum got us all to sit down on the couch. Mum went into her room and came back out with her hands behind her back.
"So now that you're 18 and you can take your driver's test, we thought it's only fair for you to have your very own car." Mum announced as she handing me the keys. I was in complete shock.
"Oh my gosh! Are you serious! Thank you so much!" I gasped as I gave them a huge hug. The keys were for a Mazda 3.
"You can't get the rest of your presents until later today though." Jai told me.
"Aww. No fair." I moaned. Everyone just laughed while we headed out into the driveway. Right there in our driveway was a red Mazda 3. I ran up to it and immediately got in the driver's seat.
"This is amazing! Thank you so much!" I exclaimed. I was about to start the car before Jai took the keys out of my hand.
"I don't think so. You still don't have your license. I'll drive." He suggested. I sighed before giving in. Sydney, Jai and I all got in the car and drove off to a huge park where everyone agreed to meet up.
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We got to the park and jumped out of the car. Everyone else was already there and they all can running up to me. I recieved so many 'Happy birthdays' and hugs and kisses before they pulled me over to a table with presents all over it.
"You guys! Are you serious? You didn't have to do all this." I smiled feeling bad for everyone.
"Are you kidding me?" James exclaimed giving me a huge bear hug.
"Come on! Just open them!" Sarah insisted. We all sat down and I opened each present one by one.
I got a gorgeous pair of heels from Sarah ( http://cdn.stylisheve.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/pink-high-heels_5.jpg ), an amazing dress from Sydney ( http://www.ofdresses.com/img/Party-dresses-are-not-frills-.jpg ), the new Instyler from Alli, a huge group photo of us in a frame from Jasmine, Avril Lavigne's Black Star perfume from Skip, a pair of gorgeous earrings from James ( http://www.elena-adams.com/pictures/earrings/pink_sapphire_earrings.jpg ) and a beautiful painting which I had my eye on for a while from Beau ( http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/3100000/Romantical-love-painting-photo-love-3195612-1103-809.jpg ).
"You can't have Luke's present until later and Jai is bringing you his present now." Alli explained.
"Jesus. You guys have seriously gone all out. Thank you so much. You have no idea how much all this means to me." I began.
"Don't worry about it." Skip smiled giving me a hug.
"You're basically our sister." Beau added as he nudged me.
"I guess we're all like one big family." Sydney pointed out. We all agreed and laughed.
Jai came back with a box with holes in it. I was confused but opened it anyway. Inside the box was an adorable little German Shepard.
"Oh my god. Hi there little one. Oh my god you are adorable!" I exclaimed.
"And she's all yours." Jai smiled.
"Jai, thank you so much, she's gorgeous." I gasped giving him a kiss. I picked her up and held her in my arms. She immediately began licking me and nibbling on my fingers. I felt connected to her the moment I saw her.
"She needs a name." Luke boasted. We played around a while with a bunch of names before we finally decided on Lady. I put everything in my car boot and we all took Lady over to the park and attempted to teach her some tricks.
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"Ok. Come on. It's only 2 o'clock. We're going somewhere fun." Luke prompted.
"Oh my god. Where are we going now?" I laughed.
"You'll see!" Sarah shouted from Beau's car. Jai, Sydney, Luke and Jasmine got into my car and everyone else got into Beau's.
I tried getting them to tell me where we were going but no one would budge.
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We pulled up in a dirt parking lot. I immediately knew where we were. The zoo.
I laughed and grabbed Lady and put her on a leash. Jai had bought me everything I would need to take care of Lady beforehand.
We walked in and immediately grabbed a map.
"We should go towards the gorillas first that way we can see all the animals on this section, stop to eat, and then see all the animals on the other side." Beau suggested.
"No we'll go towards the meerkats that way we can this side first, stop by the park, see a bit more, eat, see some more and then go to the shop and then leave." Sydney insisted.
We all laughed because we had no idea where we were going to go. We decided on going with Sydney's plan because Beau forget his route by the time we were done arguing.
We made sure to take as many pictures and videos as possible. Beau of course had to make a Keek and because he's Beau he had to try and get Jai to reply to the Keek war.
Beau grabbed my arm and threatened to steal me away from Jai if he didn't reply. Jai was pulling one of my arms one way and Beau was pulling my other arm another way.
"Guys! I'd like to celebrate my 18th with BOTH of my arms please!" I laughed. They stopped pulling and Beau put his arm around me and faced the camera at us.
"Everyone say happy birthday to Natalie here. It's her 18th! Yeah! Now she drink and drive! But not at the same time Natalie. Don't get to ahead of yourself." Beau joked before kissing me on the cheek.
"Hey hey hey! Hands off bro!" Jai laughed pushing Beau away and kissing me on the cheek.
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Luckily the zoo allowed pets. Lady was such a sweet puppy. She was really cheeky, but utterly adorable.
We visited one part of the zoo before we reached the picnic area. We went and bought a bunch of food and sat down on the grass.
"Hey Natalie. What are you doing after school? Uni? Take a year off?" Alli asked.
"Well, i'm probably gonna take a year off and then go to uni and study law." I explained.
"What about you guys?" Alli continued asking everyone. Sarah is planning a world tour soon, Sydney wants to be super model, Jasmine wants t be a professional ice-skater, the boys wanna continue Janoskians and Alli is taking a year off this year before going to uni next year to study medical.
We continued eating and playing with Lady for a while before we explored the rest of the zoo.
We found a photo booth and immediately all jumped in. It was huge so it fit all ten of us and Lady inside. We took so many photos. I thought about what to do with all the photos and videos and all the memories I have with everyone. I might put something together.
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We continued on the rest of the zoo visiting every single animal and taking our time exploring anything and everything. the boys thought it would be a good idea to film some shots for their next video called 'Awkward royalty situations'.
The boys bought some crowns and walked around pretending everyone was a peasant and demanding them to tie their shoes and feed them and do random things to treat them like royalty.
Before we left the zoo we stopped by the gift shop and bought some teddies, picked up some of our photos and then just bought random merchandise.
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We got in the cars and headed to the boy's place.
We walked in and Gina immediately came up to me.
"Happy birthday sweetheart." She smiled hugging me and kissing me on the cheeks.
"Thank you so much." I replied.
"Come with me for a second." She whispered pulling me away from everyone. She pulled me into the kitchen and sat me down at the table. She pulled out a wrapped box from under the table and handed it to me.
"Gina. You shouldn't have. Really." I insisted.
"Oh come on. You're apart of this family now, or so you will be soon enough. I'm sure Jai won't let you go on too long without a ring on the special finger." She winked. I sighed and unwrapped the box.
Inside was a gorgeous notebook with a set of pens and pencils. There was also a small box. I opened the box and inside it was a beautiful ring ( http://www.genesisisrael.com/gold_band_ring.jpg ).
"Gina. This is amazing. Oh my goodness thank you so much." I gasped.
"This ring was mine once. My mother got it from her mother who got it from her mother and so on and so forth. But I never thought i'd have a daughter to give it to. Until now. This was a special to hand it to your daughter on her 18th birthday. And you my dear are like a daughter to me." Gina explained. I was so touched. I felt tears well up in my eyes.
"Gina, this is beautiful. Thank you so much. You have no idea how much this means to me. I'm so glad you think of me as your daughter. I definetely think of you as a mother." I smiled. She wiped away my tears and kissed me on the forehead. I pu the ring on and it fit perfectly.