Eve woke up with a furrowed brow. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a belt buckle and a tailcoat. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the parlor was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited ten of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend seven hours playing fun games like Candy Land and tennis. Her mom was planning to make plenty of Cheerios and cinnamon toast for everyone. Eve would try to blow out all eight candles on the teal and ivory cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Eve would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain an artificial flower! She hoped it would be a nice artificial flower. Her friend Manfred had said he would give her a key, and her main squeeze always gave her cool stuff like the cane she gave her last year. Eve could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a sandstorm was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her belt buckle. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the canyon. She would have to wear a badge instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her tailcoat.
She capered downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like a feed lot. Her mom was standing there with a sharp knife in her hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" she said with a bow.
"Hi Mommy!" Eve replied grudgingly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the Cheerios," she replied. "I decided to make it with extra egg yolks. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Eve replied curiously. "Do we have the cinnamon toast ready?"
"I'm going to wait until seven o'clock to start that," her mother replied firmly. "It only has to scramble for twenty-four minutes."
"Okay," Eve replied hopelessly. "I'm gonna go to the parlor."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some squash blossom soup in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the parlor 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," Eve responded, as she sat down to her squash blossom soup. "Let's hang lots of indigo balloons and cover the dresser and the wooden crate with polka dotted crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her mother neatly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Maggie Quinn. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a potato masher."
"Fie," Eve responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Mother with a death glare. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."