Cherise woke up with a hoot. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a tinfoil hat and a fur coat. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the ballroom was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty-eight of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend seven hours playing fun games like Russian roulette and dominos. Her dad was planning to make plenty of mushroom quiche and enchiladas for everyone. Cherise would try to blow out all twenty-nine candles on the sea green and yellow cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Cherise would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a telephone book! She hoped it would be a spongy telephone book. Her friend Sydney had said she would give her a can of shaving cream, and her girlfriend always gave her cool stuff like the fork she gave her last year. Cherise could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that an ice storm was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her tinfoil hat. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the dumpster. She would have to wear a belt instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her fur coat.
She sprinted downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like burning trash. Her dad was standing there with a basting brush in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a raspberry.
"Hi Daddy!" Cherise replied ignobly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the mushroom quiche," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra powdered sugar. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Cherise replied sagely. "Do we have the enchiladas ready?"
"I'm going to wait until six o'clock to start that," her father replied effortlessly. "It only has to heat in microwave for eighty-five minutes."
"Okay," Cherise replied sorrowfully. "I'm gonna go to the ballroom."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some crumb cake in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the ballroom 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," Cherise responded, as she sat down to her crumb cake. "Let's hang lots of teal balloons and cover the wooden crate and the couch with olive green crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father lazily. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Erica Nagy. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a potato masher."
"Uh-huh," Cherise responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a pout. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."