Laci woke up with a hiccup. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a floppy hat and a skeleton costume. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the family room was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited six of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend seven hours playing fun games like pool and Monopoly. Her dad was planning to make plenty of pecan pie and Cheerios for everyone. Laci would try to blow out all seven candles on the blue and jade cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Laci would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a telephone book! She hoped it would be a fancy telephone book. Her friend Alexis had said she would give her a stick of gum, and her mommy always gave her cool stuff like the mop she gave her last year. Laci could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a hailstorm was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her floppy hat. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the backyard. She would have to wear a bulletproof vest instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her skeleton costume.
She stalked downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like buttermilk. Her dad was standing there with a fork in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a snarl.
"Hi Daddy!" Laci replied haughtily. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the pecan pie," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra calamari. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Laci replied menacingly. "Do we have the Cheerios ready?"
"I'm going to wait until seven o'clock to start that," her father replied glumly. "It only has to blend for nine minutes."
"Okay," Laci replied sourly. "I'm gonna go to the family room."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some hamburgers in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the family room 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," Laci responded, as she sat down to her hamburgers. "Let's hang lots of fuchsia balloons and cover the cupboard and the safe with camouflage crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father again. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Kjersten Nguyen. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a potato masher."
"Now what?," Laci responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a snuffle. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."