Tina woke up with a wrinkled nose. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a dunce cap and a bow tie. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the billiard room was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty-seven of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend seven hours playing fun games like jacks and Monopoly. Her mom was planning to make plenty of French fries and chicken soup for everyone. Tina would try to blow out all twenty-six candles on the metallic red and striped cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Tina would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a knife! She hoped it would be a huge knife. Her friend DeWitt had said he would give her a button, and her grandmother always gave her cool stuff like the vacuum cleaner she gave her last year. Tina could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a drought was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her dunce cap. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the village. She would have to wear a baseball cap instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her bow tie.
She bolted downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like pizza. Her mom was standing there with an oven mitt in her hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" she said with a glare.
"Hi Mommy!" Tina replied primly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the French fries," she replied. "I decided to make it with extra baker's chocolate. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Tina replied miserably. "Do we have the chicken soup ready?"
"I'm going to wait until eight o'clock to start that," her mother replied sorrowfully. "It only has to mix sweetly for eighty-seven minutes."
"Okay," Tina replied sleepily. "I'm gonna go to the billiard room."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some lobster in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the billiard 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," Tina responded, as she sat down to her lobster. "Let's hang lots of brilliant orange balloons and cover the coat rack and the sofa with yellow crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her mother sourly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Maggie Merton. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a meat tenderizer."
"Ahem," Tina responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Mother with a snuffle. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."