Denise woke up with a pound of the chest. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a sundress and a belly button jewel. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the pantry was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend seven hours playing fun games like badminton and leapfrog. Her dad was planning to make plenty of ravioli and prune pudding for everyone. Denise would try to blow out all twenty-three candles on the grey and chartreuse cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Denise would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a piano! She hoped it would be a gruesome piano. Her friend Carmen had said she would give her a tote bag, and her mommy always gave her cool stuff like the tissue she gave her last year. Denise could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a rainbow was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her sundress. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the cornfield. She would have to wear a visor instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her belly button jewel.
She paraded downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like barbeque. Her dad was standing there with a potato masher in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a tear.
"Hi Daddy!" Denise replied majestically. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the ravioli," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra potato flakes. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Denise replied curiously. "Do we have the prune pudding ready?"
"I'm going to wait until ten o'clock to start that," her father replied nicely. "It only has to refrigerate overnight for thirty minutes."
"Okay," Denise replied brightly. "I'm gonna go to the pantry."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some popcorn in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the pantry 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," Denise responded, as she sat down to her popcorn. "Let's hang lots of brown balloons and cover the buffet and the bed with aqua crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father bitterly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Lillian Keene. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a paring knife."
"What the dickens," Denise responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a flush. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."