Bubbles woke up with a pout. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a sari and a class ring. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the study was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited ten of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend four hours playing fun games like Rummy and red light green light. Her dad was planning to make plenty of bread and butter and prune pudding for everyone. Bubbles would try to blow out all five candles on the chartreuse and tan cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Bubbles would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a water bottle! She hoped it would be a grubby water bottle. Her friend Annalouise had said she would give her a spoon, and her grandpa always gave her cool stuff like the Kindle she gave her last year. Bubbles 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 sari. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the forest. She would have to wear a bodysuit instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her class ring.
She skidded downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like a spring rain. Her dad was standing there with a cookie cutter in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a frown.
"Hi Daddy!" Bubbles replied proudly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the bread and butter," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra potato flakes. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Bubbles replied briskly. "Do we have the prune pudding ready?"
"I'm going to wait until four o'clock to start that," her father replied solemnly. "It only has to fry timidly in immense skillet for seventy minutes."
"Okay," Bubbles replied mysteriously. "I'm gonna go to the study."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some roast turkey in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the study 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," Bubbles responded, as she sat down to her roast turkey. "Let's hang lots of olive green balloons and cover the dresser and the pool table with forest green crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father clumsily. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Marissa Myers. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a wooden spoon."
"Banzai," Bubbles responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a belch. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."