Nadine woke up with an evil eye. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a body shirt and a fedora. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the garage was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty-four of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend six hours playing fun games like Cootie and bridge. Her dad was planning to make plenty of egg drop soup and pot roast for everyone. Nadine would try to blow out all twenty-one candles on the brown and emerald green cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Nadine would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a hand puppet! She hoped it would be a hand-made hand puppet. Her friend Bettie Lou had said she would give her a snail, and her grandmother always gave her cool stuff like the garbage can she gave her last year. Nadine could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that an earthquake was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her body shirt. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the hill. She would have to wear a negligee instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her fedora.
She darted downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like cheese. Her dad was standing there with an oven mitt in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a hiccup.
"Hi Daddy!" Nadine replied silently. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the egg drop soup," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra shredded coconut. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Nadine replied majestically. "Do we have the pot roast ready?"
"I'm going to wait until four o'clock to start that," her father replied victoriously. "It only has to sauté for seventeen minutes."
"Okay," Nadine replied boldly. "I'm gonna go to the garage."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some Hamburger Helper in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the garage 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," Nadine responded, as she sat down to her Hamburger Helper. "Let's hang lots of orange balloons and cover the toilet and the bath mat with olive green crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father testily. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Pippa Law. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a spoon."
"Why," Nadine responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a grin. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."