​”Good morning baby girl!” She opened her eyes to find her father standing tall over her bed smiling down at her.  She wiped the sleep from her eyes and gathered a smile to present to her father.
“Thanks dad” she replied with half a smile and outstretched arms reaching up to give him a hug.  
“You’re welcome, get ready and come downstairs, we have a surprise for you!”
“Dad I asked you not to make it a big thing today, I just want to chill today!”  He smiled, turned and left, ignoring her protest.
It was Ava’ s 16th birthday.  Ava thought about her life and felt less than sweet.  She looked around her room and thought it was time for a change.  Her walls were papered in the pink and purple wallpaper her mother had picked out before her 10th birthday.  They had spent the day in hardware stores and furniture stores picking out wallpaper and wood for shelves and a new gold and white big girl’s full-sized bed.  They bought curtains and fancy sheets.  They stopped for pizza and they got ice-cream.  Ava laughed when her mother dropped the top scoop from her ice-cream.
“AAVVAAA!” Her dad yelled upstairs interrupting her memory.  She quickly wiped her filling eyes and left her pink and purple room to start her birthday.
Ava came downstairs and walked into the kitchen to find balloons tied to the chairs at the breakfast table, pancakes with whipped cream smiles and two small gold gift bags.  “Happy birthday Ava” her baby sister ran over to her wrapping her hands around her thighs.  Ava lifted her sister kissing her cheek.  “Thank you Mya.  Did you help dad make my pancakes?”  Mya slid down out of Ava’s hand, shook her head smiling ear to ear and took her sister’s hand leading her to her seat. “open the presents, open them” Mya jumped up and down until their father caught her mid-jump putting her into the chair besides Ava. 
“ok Ava, you heard your sister, let’s see what you got” her dad handed her the two little bags and as she reached into the first bag she thought about her thirteenth birthday when it had been her mother smiling in anticipation for the big reveal as though she didn’t know what was in her neatly wrapped present.  That time it was a necklace with a single diamond pendant.  Her mother asked her to hold up her hair as she placed it on her neck and kissed her cheek after fastening the clasp.  She could remember how she smelled like lavender and baby powder.
The thought caused her eyes to fill.  Her eyelids fluttered as she blinked several times in effort to send to avoid them seeing her sadness.  “thanks dad” came from her lips softly and she reached into the first bag and pulled out a square black box, the kind she became familiar with that always contained jewelry.  She snapped the lid up and open to find earrings.  They were beautiful, big square diamond earrings that were a match to her single stone necklace that she’d worn since she was thirteen.
“Thanks dad” exited her lips in the same soft tone; however, this time she hugged him. 
“can I see them” called Mya reaching across the table.  Mya had been staring at her the whole time anxiously watching while sticking her finger in the smiles of her pancakes and licking the whipped cream.
“when your hands are clean, I’ll let you touch them then” Ava caught Mya’s sticky hands mid-air and returned them to her plate before she could get whipped cream all in her hair.
Ava reached in her second bag and pulled out another box, smaller than the one that held her earrings but still a jewelry box.  If she had to guess she would say it contained more earrings.  Although the earring box had seemed more like a bracelet box.  She snapped the box open and there was what appeared to be a black block inside but when she picked it up out of the box she knew instantly what it was.  She sprang from her chair and her dad caught her as she leaped towards his chest.  Mya had no idea what was going on but she was clapping and jumping up and down shouting “yaayyy”.
“Dad did you really? Where is it? Is it in the garage? I can’t believe you?”  Ava fired a series of questions at her dad and he just smiled at her with raised eyebrows as though he didn’t know what she was so excited about.
“Ava, Ava calm down.  Is what in the garage?” he smiled his goofy smile and folded his arms across his chest.
“DADDY!” Ava pouted and as usual Jayson’s attempt at holding out on his baby girl failed.  He led her to the garage and covered his ear as she let out a piercing squeal at the sight of her new silver Mini Cooper.
Ava pulled out her birthday fob, unlocked the doors and hopped in and started the engine.  She was turning on the radio, the lights, and windshield wipers all at once.  She caught a glimpse of something unfamiliar in her side view mirror, her mouth was curled up into a smile.