"Oh, my sweet girl! I've missed you!" Nana embraced me in the best birthday hug I'd had so far. "Can you believe you're 16?"

"Nope." I shook my head, grinning, then let go so Austin could have attention too. I felt guilty being first each time when it was a day for the both of us.

"Ready for gifts?" Mum asked, our whole family trailing in behind her. That was when I took in the whole display of the kitchen and living room area. There were 'happy birthday' banners strung across the windows behind the dining table and balloons everywhere. I think Teddy was slightly afraid of the balloons, hence why he moved away and lay next to Abi, watching from a distance. I couldn't believe the amount of colourfully wrapped gifts that were sitting on the table of all shapes and sizes, as well as all the envelopes containing cards. All of Austin's were wrapped in papers of red, green, blue, and black, whereas mine were yellow, orange, and pink.

"Who first?" River asked.

"Here, open mine first!" Nana announced, producing these 2 beautifully wrapped boxes of rather decent sizes too. At the same time, Austin and I opened our first gifts. I was gentle, trying not to rip the paper too much, whereas he went straight for it and ripped it as quickly as I could.

Inside was a white box with Ashlyn written in swirly letters on the top. When I lifted the lid off, I was amazed to see a heap of smaller gifts, all exactly things I would choose. I gasped as I saw a huge jar of Nutella, as well as other chocolate bars, perfume, fuzzy socks, sunglasses, and a voucher to Willow's Muffins. Austin's was similar with stuff more to his taste.

"I think I had more fun putting together the hamper than I should have." Nana laughed. "I just kept seeing things and couldn't help myself." Both Austin and I thanked her profusely, then went back to opening other gifts.

We did a few cards, of which Austin had a significant amount more than I did, which was understandable considering the circumstances, and then we did family gifts.

River bought me these LED lights, which he had in his room, and I loved, Nick bought me a necklace which was silver with an 'A' imprinted in the middle of a heart, Ryan gave me a jewellery box, which I assumed was coordinated with Nick and Jonah bought me a book with a pretty green cover called Anne of Green Gables. Inside the front cover was a note but I decided I would look at that later.

Austin and I agreed we would do our gifts to each other next.

"Two!?" He exclaimed. I just smiled in response and let him open them. I definitely needed to practice my wrapping skills, but I had so much fun with the sticky tape which made it entertaining when Austin couldn't open it.

The first gift was a lanyard with fancy cars all over it, a suggestion from Ryan since Austin would be getting his license very soon and would be needing to take his license with him, hence why it had a plastic sleeve attached to it. It was also handy since Austin had a habit of losing his house keys, so hopefully this would help.

Watching his face as he opened the second gift, I would have loved to have filmed it.

"What...how...when?" He stuttered.

"Yesterday." I grinned.

"Do you have any idea how hard these are to get?"

"Yes. I stood in line for 20 minutes!"

"How did you know?"

"I had some help." Sean had texted me whilst I was out shopping, explaining that a store called Culture Kings was having a drop of these new hoodies that Austin had been dying for, so I went with Tate and Gabby and managed to get one in his size. Mum came too since she also had heard about the hoodie from him but hadn't thought she'd be able to get one.

"You have a very dedicated sister." Mum told him.

"I know. Thanks Ash." He smiled, hugging me.

"Can you get me one of those for my birthday?" River asked. "Preferably the one with the gold down the sleeve. You should write that down." Everyone laughed and admired Austin with his new hoodie, then it was my turn to open my present.

Underneath the pretty wrapping was an orange box with a small tick on the top.

"You're going to need these if you want to beat me next time we race." Austin smirked. I grinned as I opened to see the prettiest track shoes I'd ever seen. They were aqua and pink and seemingly had glitter in them too.

"These are going to make me super-fast." I giggled. "You'll never be able to beat me. Not like you could before anyway, but still." Everyone laughed and smirked at Austin, whereas he just rolled his eyes.

"We'll see about that."

We opened the rest of our gifts from our parents. I got more clothes, some toiletries, a new phone case, vouchers and some more books. Austin was extremely excited when he opened a box to see he'd gotten a new phone, which even I hadn't known about. I think River was jealous since he kept trying to get hold of it, even though Austin had continually said no.

"Ash, there's another one for you." Ryan pointed at another gift towards the back of the table.

"This is the one I'm most excited about." Mum giggled.

"Don't spoil it." Dad rolled his eyes jokingly at her.

I gently unwrapped the present to find a soft grey book with 'Photos' imprinted in gold writing on the front. I lifted the first page to see two printed photos, each in an individual plastic slot. The first half of the book continued like that, filled with pictures that had been taken of me since I'd been reunited with mum. There were pictures of me at the hospital, me when I was learning to skateboard, me in my school uniform, and so many more.

"I can't believe I've never noticed all these pictures being taken." I gasped, admiring them. "I love it." I grinned, going to hug mum and dad, who were equally happy with the gift. I made a mental note to go through it when I could really look and take my time with each memory.

"Okay, we have one more." Dad announced. "You have to open them at the same time." He handed us each an extremely light envelope.

Together, we ripped the paper open and quickly unfolded the paper, scanning the page to see what it was.

"I don't get it." I shook my head when Austin gasped.

"Look." He pointed at my page near the bottom where it said:

DESTINATION: Singapore

I gasped at looked up at my parents. "Are you serious?" I asked.

"What is it?" Ryan peered over my shoulder to see. "No way!"
"January." Dad grinned, looking over at Mum in excitement.

"What?" Nick looked between us all.

"We're going to Singapore!" Austin announced. Everyone cheered and started chatting away with each other about how excited they were. I did a project on Singapore once and had dreamed of the day I might be able to visit. I couldn't believe I was actually going there and that I hadn't even suspected a thing.

Austin and I made sure to show our gratitude for all our gifts before everyone went either back to bed, or to get changed, since we were all still in our pyjamas. I had agreed that I would help mum and Nick cook and get prepared for a family lunch we were having. Elyse was meant to be coming soon and Nana was going to pick up Grandpa as well. Mum had said she didn't want too many other people coming since we already had such a packed weekend, so they were the only ones invited.