Brittany 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 lab coat and a camisole. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the kitchen was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend two hours playing fun games like Mother May I and chess. Her mom was planning to make plenty of roast Cornish game hen and ice cream for everyone. Brittany would try to blow out all twenty-two candles on the burgundy and red cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Brittany would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a diagram! She hoped it would be an overgrown diagram. Her friend Nils had said he would give her a helmet, and her dad always gave her cool stuff like the stack of papers she gave her last year. Brittany 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 lab coat. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the treetop. She would have to wear a pair of flip-flops instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her camisole.
She blundered downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like toast. Her mom was standing there with an egg cutter in her hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" she said with a gasp.
"Hi Mommy!" Brittany replied curiously. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the roast Cornish game hen," she replied. "I decided to make it with extra white beans. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Brittany replied ferociously. "Do we have the ice cream ready?"
"I'm going to wait until one o'clock to start that," her mother replied cleverly. "It only has to blend for seventy-seven minutes."
"Okay," Brittany replied uneasily. "I'm gonna go to the kitchen."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some ice cream in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the kitchen 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," Brittany responded, as she sat down to her ice cream. "Let's hang lots of orange balloons and cover the pool table and the wine rack with chocolate brown crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her mother suspiciously. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Kaitlyn Baker. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a bare foot."
"Fine," Brittany responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Mother with a kiss. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."