Meghan woke up with a cringe. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a set of scrubs and a bowler hat. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the game room was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty-one of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend one hour playing fun games like trivia and Clue. Her dad was planning to make plenty of macaroni and cheese and prune pudding for everyone. Meghan would try to blow out all twenty candles on the lime-green and azure cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Meghan would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a can of soup! She hoped it would be a damp can of soup. Her friend Lilya had said she would give her a diary, and her grandmother always gave her cool stuff like the paper airplane she gave her last year. Meghan could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a drought was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her set of scrubs. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the plateau. She would have to wear a wet suit instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her bowler hat.
She padded downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like sauerkraut. Her dad was standing there with a whisk in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a cackle.
"Hi Daddy!" Meghan replied uneasily. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the macaroni and cheese," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra chocolate chips. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Meghan replied trustingly. "Do we have the prune pudding ready?"
"I'm going to wait until five o'clock to start that," her father replied resignedly. "It only has to press for sixty minutes."
"Okay," Meghan replied arrogantly. "I'm gonna go to the game room."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some prune pudding in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the game 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," Meghan responded, as she sat down to her prune pudding. "Let's hang lots of terra cotta balloons and cover the nightstand and the billiard table with green crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father stealthily. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Valerie Boudreaux. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has an ice pick."
"Ay chihuahua," Meghan responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a bow. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."