Heidi 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 gold medal and a mask. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the auditorium was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty-one of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend six hours playing fun games like hopscotch and billiards. Her dad was planning to make plenty of Hamburger Helper and chocolate-covered ants for everyone. Heidi would try to blow out all seventeen candles on the carrot-orange and tan cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Heidi would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a bagpipe! She hoped it would be a delicate bagpipe. Her friend Emmeline had said she would give her a diary, and her fiancée always gave her cool stuff like the Frisbee she gave her last year. Heidi could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a driving rain was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her gold medal. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the village. She would have to wear a hoop skirt instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her mask.
She slid downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like bacon frying. Her dad was standing there with a grater in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a snigger.
"Hi Daddy!" Heidi replied stupidly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the Hamburger Helper," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra ham. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Heidi replied quietly. "Do we have the chocolate-covered ants ready?"
"I'm going to wait until twelve o'clock to start that," her father replied pitifully. "It only has to scramble for seventy-four minutes."
"Okay," Heidi replied brashly. "I'm gonna go to the auditorium."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some fried chicken in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the auditorium 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," Heidi responded, as she sat down to her fried chicken. "Let's hang lots of teal balloons and cover the piano and the wooden crate with brilliant orange crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father temperamentally. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Rosa Eriksson. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a cookie cutter."
"Aarrggh," Heidi responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a raised eyebrow. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."