Birthday Surprise!!!

First of all, I’d give the basis for my not posting on my birthday. The reason is simple; I didn’t have a very good one. I was depressed because one of my friends blundered and told me that the entire group was going to have a surprise party for me, and now there were no plans at all. It was the second day of Eid, my elder sister and cousin had their SAT exam on that very day so when I woke up on the 22nd of January, the whole house was empty except for my nine-year old sister still fast asleep. And my mother…she is so unfair!!! She locked the room in which the computer’s kept so I couldn’t start typing even my feelings on my birthday. So when my parents and my sis finally came home at 1 pm, they brought some balloons and tied them to my chair…then had their lunch and promptly fell asleep. And were they exhausted…they didn’t get up until it was seven! Lazybones, all of them. I just moped around the house waiting for calls. In that time I received exactly three calls….but they were more than satisfactory. I don’t care what people say, I just love the way friends are so sweet on occasions like this. Anyways, Eesha (my little sis) finally badgered me into playing badminton, which we had to play in the house as it was pouring outside. I was sooooo grumpy by that time because it was supposed to be my sweet sixteen!!!! And my whole family just kept on sleeping away…. and Eesha was bent on cheating every moment. So finally I blew up at her and she blew up at me and we sat around separately until she apologized about 3 hours later. Well, everyone finally managed to get up and go to get the cake…and while we were out, Em called, and I wasn’t there! Now that was depressing when I found out, because on a birthday, every call counts. And then? My khala came with my cousins, they ate he cake, we played a board game and they went away again. Yes, I felt a real loser that day…. But I don’t care anymore!!!! Because my sweet, sweet (yes chij, you too, whether you like it or not!), lovely, darling friends really DO care about me, in spite of all my doubts!!! So…this was yesterday, the 25th of January, three days after my birthday, when I was just getting into a bad mood because I was complaining about my life to my mom and she didn’t have time to listen…so I ate about two spoonfuls of chawwals (which I choked on), and was just about to do SOMETHING (it completely slipped my mind what I was about to do), when my mom called me from the drawing room. She’d been calling as soon as I got home from school, for some task or the other, so I assumed she had yet another errand for me to do. But what I did notice was that she sounded really happy…maybe she wanted a cup of tea. So I walked into the room….and got a huge handful of flowers and ice thrown on my face! Through the petals I saw chij’s camera flashing and niqabified and three of my other friends all ready for more petal attacks! My first impulse was to cry, which I did do for about two minutes, but then I just couldn’t do anything but grin my head off. Well, the surprise-givers were more ravenous than anything else, which wasn’t surprising at all, considering that they had nothing to eat since morning and had been roaming around Lahore, trying to get into locked shops to buy confetti, getting the cake and the balloons, which had all burst but one by the time they got into my drawing room. So after niqabified had burst the last balloon by trying to write ‘Happy Birthday’ on it in her famous bubble writing, the food finally arrived, from my lovely mother and sister, who were also one of the many people who knew about it…I think even our mechanics’ teacher knew about it, as he didn’t show up that day for the first time in his whole life, allowing everyone to get away from school early. Then came the stories of three other friends who couldn’t make it, which included Em(really missed you yaar!), and then the various stories after which they all swore that this was not only the first, but the LAST surprise party they’d ever throw…and then they told me all the hints they had placed at my very feet, words slipped from their mouths, strange behavior, and misplace giggles, really stupid excuses…..but I’ll maintain to this day that I never expected this to happen!! It turned out I’d even seen the video camera they were planning to take, but it was in the hands of some uniform wali girl, whom they had begged to hide the camera from me. However, I was a dumb as a dodo and didn’t give it a second thought. And after all that fuss, chij left the camera in her locker, so no vdo was made after all! As the story turned out, another friend S said that she was going to drop the two legendary cousins because they didn’t want to wait for the bus (I should have suspected something there, as S lives quite near to school, and these two live really far away…but I didn’t…so sporting of me to be so stupid that day wasn’t it?). After buying the necessary stuff, the bouquet, etc, they all went to another friend’s N’s house, which was just a few minutes’ away from mine…THEN they called my mom (I think it was at that time) and told her to let them in when they come…. and…THEN I got the best shock of my life. This is the height of brevity, but the actual mishaps, the confusion, and everything else is really too lengthy to put it here. So the presents, the cards, the pleading by chij and niqabi not to open their cards and presents (I’ve never seen two more shy characters in my life) And then…I can’t describe the fun we had! I’m really, really sorry, but if I attempt to post all we did, all I felt, my fingers would be history and you all would punch my brains out ‘cuz I just can’t do justice to that day! All I can say is that my friends are just the best…I admit I didn’t cry then but I did cry when you all were gone…and to think you all planned this since before Eid! And such exquisite acting! I JUST ADORE YOU GUYSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!! *mmmuah* (I think you all have had enough of hugs :D) I can write a whole lot more, such as what everyone wrote on the cards, about how either they felt an ‘old soul’ writing a 16th birthday card to me when they themselves were 17.5(this is, again, our very own chij) or else lamenting on about how I seemed get older every year…but I’m just eager to post this now, before I get another fir of shyness and put it away in my computer forever…so MANY MANY MANY MANY MANY MANY MANY MANY MANY THANKS TO ALL OF YOU!!! AND AGAIN….I LOVE UUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!