Tammy woke up with a sniff. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a wet suit and a bustier. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the garage was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited eight of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend four hours playing fun games like roulette and leapfrog. Her dad was planning to make plenty of pretzels and dirty rice for everyone. Tammy would try to blow out all twelve candles on the crimson and olive drab cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Tammy would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a diamond! She hoped it would be a polka-dotted diamond. Her friend Jennifer had said she would give her a piano, and her grandpa always gave her cool stuff like the Frisbee she gave her last year. Tammy could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a tornado was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her wet suit. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the countryside. She would have to wear a shirt instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her bustier.
She scooted downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like paint. Her dad was standing there with an oven mitt in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a cackle.
"Hi Daddy!" Tammy replied gratefully. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the pretzels," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra Worcestershire sauce. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Tammy replied wearily. "Do we have the dirty rice ready?"
"I'm going to wait until six o'clock to start that," her father replied kindly. "It only has to boil for seventy-seven minutes."
"Okay," Tammy replied hastily. "I'm gonna go to the garage."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some ceviche in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the garage 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," Tammy responded, as she sat down to her ceviche. "Let's hang lots of peach balloons and cover the coat rack and the hammock with burgundy crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father humbly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Brook Cramer. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a turkey baster."
"Whee," Tammy responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with an air kiss. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."