Cinderella woke up with a sigh. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a uniform and a ski mask. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the outhouse was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited nineteen of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend two hours playing fun games like badminton and hide and seek. Her mom was planning to make plenty of refried beans and dry toast for everyone. Cinderella would try to blow out all twenty-one candles on the peach and polka dotted cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Cinderella would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a contrabass recorder! She hoped it would be a bronze contrabass recorder. Her friend Dax had said he would give her a cell phone, and her grandmother always gave her cool stuff like the fish bowl she gave her last year. Cinderella could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a downpour was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her uniform. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the wasteland. She would have to wear a tinfoil hat instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her ski mask.
She zoomed downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like meatloaf. Her mom was standing there with an electric mixer in her hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" she said with a snarl.
"Hi Mommy!" Cinderella replied dolorously. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the refried beans," she replied. "I decided to make it with extra ground cumin. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Cinderella replied uselessly. "Do we have the dry toast ready?"
"I'm going to wait until eight o'clock to start that," her mother replied wryly. "It only has to grill for forty-two minutes."
"Okay," Cinderella replied nimbly. "I'm gonna go to the outhouse."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some chicken soup in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the outhouse 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," Cinderella responded, as she sat down to her chicken soup. "Let's hang lots of metallic red balloons and cover the windowsill and the bathtub with peach crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her mother needlessly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Krista Chopra. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a garlic press."
"Tubular," Cinderella responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Mother with a cringe. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."