Stacy woke up with a death glare. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a bowler hat and a toga. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the auditorium was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited fourteen of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend six hours playing fun games like poker and checkers. Her dad was planning to make plenty of cornbread and bread and butter for everyone. Stacy would try to blow out all twenty-one candles on the grey and black cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Stacy would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a cardboard box! She hoped it would be a jagged cardboard box. Her friend Jasmine had said she would give her a bicycle, and her mom always gave her cool stuff like the pair of pliers she gave her last year. Stacy could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a blizzard was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her bowler hat. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the dump. She would have to wear a set of pink foam curlers instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her toga.
She proceeded downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like mildew. Her dad was standing there with a spoon in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a flinch.
"Hi Daddy!" Stacy replied brightly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the cornbread," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra orange peel. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Stacy replied shakily. "Do we have the bread and butter ready?"
"I'm going to wait until six o'clock to start that," her father replied strangely. "It only has to freeze for forty-six minutes."
"Okay," Stacy replied accidentally. "I'm gonna go to the auditorium."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some lamb curry in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the auditorium 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," Stacy responded, as she sat down to her lamb curry. "Let's hang lots of aquamarine balloons and cover the bench and the beanbag chair with metallic red crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father demurely. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Lorrie Brinkman. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a meat tenderizer."
"Humph," Stacy responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a flush. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."