Arkay could hear everyone muttering downstairs, planning their surprise. In fact, he could hear them through the heavy wooden door to his bedroom, and through the pillow he had put over his head. What he couldn’t hear though was what they were saying. Not that Arkay wanted to know. He liked surprises. Well, nice surprises.
Rolling over, Arkay glanced at his wristbands, which were sitting on the bedside table next to him. 8:15 in the morning. He had requested to be woken up at 8:30. But funnily enough, Arkay had been struggling to sleep all night. For a change, it wasn’t because of the hundreds of awful nightmares he got every so often. But he couldn’t think of any other reasons. Unless… Was Arkay excited?
Arkay smiled to himself. The smile turned into a gigantic yawn. The idea of him being excited amused Arkay. He was rarely excited for anything. They weren’t even planning anything in particular. Presents in the morning, a ton of junk food, a nice meal in the evening and that was it. Arkay was even planning an early night since he was heading down to the polling stations the next day to prepare for the stupid election. Another yawn erupted from Arkay’s mouth as he rolled back onto his bed. The muttering downstairs had got quieter. From the sounds of it, Elksia had brought her pet skylos round, and he was squeaking excitedly.
Thinking about it, Arkay wasn’t even sure what presents they had. He hadn’t asked for anything, there wasn’t really anything he wanted. Well, there were things he wanted but they were silly things he didn’t want others buying for him. Arkay wasn’t really fussed though, his desires currently were more focused around glorious foodstuffs like chocolate and, well, more chocolate. As for normal presents, Arkay had no clue. Normally, he could at least guess what Elksia had gotten him, but this year, he had no idea what so ever.
That didn’t bother Arkay though. He was in a good mood. Despite his lack of sleep.
The muttering got even quieter. Arkay glanced towards his wristbands again. Only a few minutes had passed, but Arkay gathered that they’d realised they were talking too loudly. Even Elksia’s pet had calmed down. Adorable fluffy thing was called Colin, which was a pretty Bayvak-y name, but it suited the derpy little skylos. Very excitable though.
Once again, Arkay rolled over. He was feeling restless. He wanted to get up now (partly because he needed the bathroom) but he didn’t want to ruin their surprise by getting up. Retvik in particular always liked waking Arkay up by singing happy birthday songs at him. Which was always more hilarious than normal because of Retvik’s deep voice and utter inability to sing.
Now Arkay could hear footsteps, slowly climbing the metal stairs. The time was 8:25, maybe they couldn’t hold it in any more. Arkay pulled his blanket over himself and pretended to be asleep.
Suddenly, the door burst open. Retvik, Elksia and Tenuk all charged in, screaming at the top of their lungs. while throwing balloons at Arkay.
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ARKAY!”
“Thanks guys!” Arkay grinned. “Love you too!”
“You’re going to love your presents!” Elksia shouted as the three of them pulled Arkay out of bed and carried him downstairs. “Time to spoil the birthday kid!”