Pleasant surprises

With that, Tom woke up with a start, he was still asleep and he slowly and gently began rubbing the sleep out of his still tired eyes. He could've sworn that he dreamt about something, perhaps something important even, but no matter how much he thought about it he couldn't remember, he couldn't remember even a single thing about his dream.

Something about his supposed dream startled him, but he couldn't put a finger on what exactly was making him feel that way. It was the type of shiver he'd feel when he was forced, by his parents, to think about which school he wanted to choose to go to for primary in September of this year. He'd chosen already, but now he just felt nervous about thinking of having to go to school in half a month, at the start of this coming September.

Whilst he was trying to remember, a lot of time passed, it had been around half an hour. Soon he decided to give up trying to remember, if it was important he would remember at some point anyway, right?

Tom had woken up rather early but had been sitting in bed for a while, he'd been awake for around an hour and had been thinking about everything and nothing in particular.

After a while he grabbed the bear that was on the end of the bed gently and held it in his hands, he stretched it slightly by pulling at both the arms in opposite directions, he then looked at it and smiled.

"Mr. Teddy, it's my birthday today." His smile brightened, "Do you think Mummy and Daddy got me a Thomus the Bankengine toy?"

The toy didn't move or anything and neither did Tom, he sat and stared patiently at his teddybear then after a while of sitting in silence he replied to his own question, "I've been good this year so probably, and I said it's what I really really wanted..."

Tom's smile widened, they toy still hadn't moved or said anything, it was exactly how a toy should act. Tom however, continued talking to his bear and don't mind the one sided conversation, and the long moments of silence that felt like an eternity.

"You're right Mr. Teddy! As long as I was being a good boy Mummy and Daddy would definitely buy me the toy I've wanted for ages, right?" He smiled warmly in anticipation, "I'm sure they didn't forget, I wrote it on little notes and stuck them everywhere, and when we went out I kept asking Mummy if she could please buy it for me for my birthday."

His smile became wider and wider, it got so wide it looked as though his face would break if it widened any more. Tom was so excited that he was visibly shaking with anticipation.

With all of his thoughts focused on the day being his birthday, along with the thought of getting the toy he'd oh-so desperately wanted for ages, Tom gently set Mr. Teddy on the corner of his bed once again and quickly but carefully dropped out of his bed. He set his hands on the bed and turned so that his little feet and short legs could touch the floor carefully so he wouldn't fall.

He then rushed over to his closet and pulled open the wooden doors with visible excitement radiating off of him. He thoughtlessly picked out a random set of clothes he could change into so he could hurry downstairs and hurry to open his gifts and eat his cake.

Tom laid his clothes on the bed carefully and then waddled off to the shared bathroom to brush his teeth and to freshen up. He brushed his teeth and was in such a rush that he accidentally swallowed some of the month toothpaste. He gagged a little before rushing off back to his room to change out of his pyjamas.

He first removed his pyjama top and changed into the top which he had brought out of his closet, he pulled the top over his head hurriedly which resulted in him getting his head slightly stuck in the top, he tugged a little before realising he'd have to take it off and try again. This time he was a bit more slow and careful, he proceeded to drag the top over his head and then slipped out of his pyjama bottoms and changed into the shorts he'd also brought from the closet.

He tugged on a pair of socks and then took a brief look at himself in order to observe his outfit, before he decided to look into his mirror and check if he looked decent.

His top was a long sleeved T-shirt that was white in colour with light green pastel stripes running down the torso and arms. The shorts were made of denim, were baggy and reached down to his knees, they had deep pockets and had a cool design down the sides that didn't really represent anything.

He happened to be wearing a mismatched pair of socks, which wasn't a surprise, one was pure white with a single red ring around the top, the other was dark grey with the toe and heel being a lighter shade of grey.

Tom nodded in satisfaction at the sight of his appearance in the mirror and then proceeded to hurry out of his room and down the stairs, almost tripping multiple times in his rush.

He reached the kitchen and stood still in shock at seeing all of the pretty decorations, his parents always decorated the house but on this birthday in particular, everything was far more fancy. There were banners and flags and streamers, Tom's face broke into another smile and he felt extremely happy, he didn't see his parents in the kitchen but instead saw a box which he assumed to be the cake.

Tom had a sudden urge to take a sneak peak at the cake but stopped himself quickly, he loved being surprised by this parents every year on special occasions so he resisted the urge and instead walked from the kitchen into the dining room only to see it was decorated in the same way. Tom was amazed by how quickly his pasta had been able to decorate everything, and without him realising to boot.

He took a second to look around before turning to walk through the doorframe of the dining room into the living room, he saw even more decorations than were in the past two rooms and his smile once again widened. He took a moment to take everything in before realising that Tom was actually sitting on his sofa with a party hat on his head.