Tara woke up with an evil eye. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a coat and a jerkin. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the guest room was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty-six of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend two hours playing fun games like dominos and cribbage. Her mom was planning to make plenty of tacos and ravioli for everyone. Tara would try to blow out all twenty-nine candles on the pink and forest green cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Tara would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a magazine! She hoped it would be a used magazine. Her friend Bosco had said he would give her a microscope, and her grandmother always gave her cool stuff like the grease gun she gave her last year. Tara 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 coat. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the moonscape. She would have to wear a jerkin instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her jerkin.
She sauntered downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like road kill. Her mom was standing there with a mixing spoon in her hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" she said with a grunt.
"Hi Mommy!" Tara replied greedily. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the tacos," she replied. "I decided to make it with extra red cabbage. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Tara replied truculently. "Do we have the ravioli ready?"
"I'm going to wait until one o'clock to start that," her mother replied suspiciously. "It only has to arrange for twenty-four minutes."
"Okay," Tara replied dolorously. "I'm gonna go to the guest room."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some waffles in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the guest room 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," Tara responded, as she sat down to her waffles. "Let's hang lots of crimson balloons and cover the workbench and the futon with violet crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her mother repeatedly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Audra Bell. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a spatula."
"Diddly poo," Tara responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Mother with a chuckle. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."