Stormy woke up with a flutter. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a camisole and a derby. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the servant's quarters was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited thirty of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend five hours playing fun games like roulette and jump rope. Her dad was planning to make plenty of dirty rice and cornbread for everyone. Stormy would try to blow out all twenty-nine candles on the emerald green and lime-green cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Stormy would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a purse! She hoped it would be a multicolored purse. Her friend Meghan had said she would give her a rock, and her grandpa always gave her cool stuff like the purse she gave her last year. Stormy could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a blanket of mist was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her camisole. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the cliff. She would have to wear a Panama hat instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her derby.
She staggered downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like a Chinese restaurant. Her dad was standing there with an egg cutter in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a grimace.
"Hi Daddy!" Stormy replied majestically. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the dirty rice," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra chopped onions. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Stormy replied joyously. "Do we have the cornbread ready?"
"I'm going to wait until seven o'clock to start that," her father replied speedily. "It only has to mix mysteriously for sixty-nine minutes."
"Okay," Stormy replied dolefully. "I'm gonna go to the servant's quarters."
"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 servant's quarters 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," Stormy responded, as she sat down to her waffles. "Let's hang lots of scarlet balloons and cover the nightstand and the four-poster bed with striped crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father awkwardly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Xaviera Franklin. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a meat tenderizer."
"Huh," Stormy responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a pound of the chest. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."