Heidi woke up with a flinch. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a skeleton costume and a false beard. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the pool room was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty-three of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend three hours playing fun games like checkers and chess. Her mom was planning to make plenty of scrambled eggs and strawberry shortcake for everyone. Heidi would try to blow out all thirty-five candles on the orange and azure cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Heidi would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain an acorn! She hoped it would be a ragged acorn. Her friend Mao had said he would give her a notepad, and her grandmother always gave her cool stuff like the muffin she gave her last year. Heidi could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a hot day was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her skeleton costume. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the crime scene. She would have to wear a garland instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her false beard.
She whirled downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like burnt toast. Her mom was standing there with a meat thermometer in her hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" she said with a sigh.
"Hi Mommy!" Heidi replied threateningly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the scrambled eggs," she replied. "I decided to make it with extra pine nuts. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Heidi replied offhandedly. "Do we have the strawberry shortcake ready?"
"I'm going to wait until six o'clock to start that," her mother replied warily. "It only has to sauté for five minutes."
"Okay," Heidi replied energetically. "I'm gonna go to the pool room."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some steak in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the pool room first?" she begged.
"It looks just like it always does," her mother replied. "Remember, I'm depending on you to help with the decorating."
"Oh yeah," Heidi responded, as she sat down to her steak. "Let's hang lots of metallic red balloons and cover the bookcase and the settee with carrot-orange crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her mother elatedly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Lizzie Barrymore. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a candy thermometer."
"Malarkey," Heidi responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Mother with a cringe. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."