Tess woke up with a simper. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a turtleneck and a beach towel. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the ballroom was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited seventeen of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend two hours playing fun games like Candy Land and Rummy. Her dad was planning to make plenty of macaroni and lime sherbet for everyone. Tess would try to blow out all twenty-seven candles on the fuchsia and navy blue cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Tess would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a pom-pom! She hoped it would be a hollow pom-pom. Her friend Elizabeth had said she would give her a bag of popcorn, and her mom always gave her cool stuff like the box of Kleenex she gave her last year. Tess could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a windstorm was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her turtleneck. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the wasteland. She would have to wear a pair of contact lenses instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her beach towel.
She leapt downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like Calvin Klein. Her dad was standing there with a meat tenderizer in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a snuffle.
"Hi Daddy!" Tess replied zestily. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the macaroni," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra sweetened condensed milk. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Tess replied hopefully. "Do we have the lime sherbet ready?"
"I'm going to wait until two o'clock to start that," her father replied grimly. "It only has to spoon into container for twenty-seven minutes."
"Okay," Tess replied glibly. "I'm gonna go to the ballroom."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some shrimp in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the ballroom first?" she begged.
"It looks just like it always does," her father replied. "Remember, I'm depending on you to help with the decorating."
"Oh yeah," Tess responded, as she sat down to her shrimp. "Let's hang lots of forest green balloons and cover the footstool and the washstand with magenta crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father crazily. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Elly Magnusson. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a meat tenderizer."
"Holy buckets," Tess responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a finger gun. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."